Racism and its impact on minorities in Malaysia

Under Article 2(2) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, State parties can “when the circumstances so warrant, take, in the social, economic, cultural and other fields, special and concrete measures to ensure the adequate development and protection of certain racial groups or individuals belonging to them, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the full and equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms”. It further states, “These measures shall in no case entail as a consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate rights for different racial groups after the objectives for which they were taken have been achieved”.

These measures are intended towards the oppressed groups. But in 1971, the Malaysian government introduced New Economic Policy (NEP) to perpetuate the rule of the majority Malays. The NEP provided affirmative action programmes for the majority “Bumiputeras” (sons of the soil) i.e. the ethnic Malays in business, education and the civil service. Within two decades, the NEP had crippled the Indian and Chinese origin Malaysians. Yet, in 1991, the NEP was revised under the New Development Plan (1991-2000) to achieve further socio-economic upliftment of the Bumiputeras. The same preferential treatment of the majority Malays continues under the New Vision Policy (2001-2010)etc.

The statistics of the devastating impact of the pro-Bumiputera policies are telling.

Today, Malaysia is one of the South-East Asia’s most vibrant economies and the socio-economic conditions of the majority Malays have improved exponentially. But there has been little improvement of the conditions of the Indian origin Malaysians.

In 1970, the overall share of wealth of the ethnic Indians stood at 1.1 percent but three decades later, their overall share of wealth increased only slightly to about 1.5 percent which is disproportionately less in relation to their population.

Indian origin Malaysians constitute about 8% of the total population. But, they also constituted 15 percent of juvenile delinquents, about 50 percent of all convicts in prisons in 2004, and 41% of the beggars in 2003.According to Hindu Rights Action Force, the percentage of Indians in the civil service fell from 40% in 1957 to less than 2% in 2005. According to official records, 30-35 Indian origin Malaysians per 100,000 committed or attempted to commit suicide annually as compared to 10-12 Malaysians per 100,000 in 2006.

In education, Indian origin Malaysians made up of less than 5% of the total university intake of over 45,000 annually. Nearly half of the 523 Tamil vernacular schools do not receive any government funds although they are in shambles.

In addition, their religious freedoms are violated. Under Article 3 (1) of the Constitution of Malaysia, Islam is the religion of the Federation. According to the Hindu Rights Action Force, there is an “unofficial policy of Hindu temple cleansing in Malaysia”. At least three Hindu temples were demolished, one was partly destroyed and two others had been served demolition notices in Kuala Lumpur and neighboring Selangor state since February 2006.

II. Repression to silence protest against racism

Malaysia remains a truly Police State. It resorted to high-handedness to bludgeon the protectors. The Malaysian riot police broke up the rally by using disproportionate force – using batons, tear gas and water cannon against unarmed protesters.

Moreover, many students face suspension under the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 which prohibits undergraduate students from taking part in demonstrations. Under this Act, those arrested and charged in court are suspended and are allowed to resume their studies only if the cases against them are dropped or if they are acquitted.

It is high time that the international community protested against the racist policies and practices of the Malaysian government and the use of the Internal Security Act against those who protest against the policies and practices of the “racism and racial discrimination”.