US panel concerned, Manmohan not sleepless, at Malaysian temple destruction

US panel is concerned. Manmohan Singh does not seem to have sleepless nights at temples being destroyed in Malaysia. Read on...

US panel concerned at Malaysian temple destruction
1 hour ago (4:06 AM IST Dec. 7, 2007)

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US Congress-appointed commission expressed concern Thursday at the destruction of Hindu temples and other alleged discrimination faced by religious minorities in predominantly-Muslim Malaysia.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the administration of President George W. Bush to raise the matter with Kuala Lumpur and "insist that immediate measures be taken to protect sacred sites and prevent further destruction."

The commission said it was "concerned" by recent Malaysian government actions against the ethnic Indian Hindu minority "curtailing their human rights, including the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

"Continued discrimination against members of the ethnic Indian Hindu minority, including the destruction of sacred places and images, only fuels religious unrest and intolerance," said commission chairman Michael Cromartie.

At least 8,000 ethnic Indians protested in the streets of Kuala Lumpur about two weeks ago to highlight racial and religious discrimination by the Muslim Malay-dominated government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The Hindu Rights Action Task Force, a Malaysian rights group which organized the rally, claimed one temple was being demolished every three weeks.

Police dispersed the crowd with water cannons and tear gas, and witnesses said some demonstrators were beaten with batons.

Abdullah accused ethnic Indian activists of stirring up racial conflict and threatened to use a draconian law to detain protestors indefinitely without trial.

The US commission, a non-partisan panel appointed by the US president and leaders of Congress, noted that in late October, Malaysian authorities demolished a 100-year-old temple and reportedly assaulted its chief priest.

Just this week, another temple in Malacca state was demolished by local authorities despite having received a "stay order" from state officials, the commission said.

It asked the Bush administration to get an assurance from the Malaysian authorities that no charges would be filed against the organizers of the demonstrations.

"Malaysia should ensure that internationally protected rights to peaceful assembly, expression, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion are protected," it said.

The commission also said that Kuala Lumpur's Islamic courts have expanded their jurisdiction in recent years, threatening secular Malaysia's civil courts and the country's commitment to religious pluralism.

"Because the (Malaysian) constitution deems that all Malays are Muslim, the sharia courts have weighed in on a number of high-profile cases involving conversion, marriage, divorce, child custody, and burial rights of non-Muslims," it said.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jr-YlI6nDovUpmdp28oiaxVm0xrA

We need India's support: Ethnic Indian leader in Malaysia

New Delhi, (PTI): The leader of ethnic Indian community in Malaysia on Thursday urged New Delhi to take up with Kuala Lumpur the issue of alleged mistreatment of People of Indian Origin in that country.

"India can do much more, and it should realise that it is an economic giant. New Delhi can influence Malaysia as the latter cannot ignore the country's business potential," Waytha Moorthy, leader of Hindu Rights Action Force which is spearheading the agitation in Malaysia, told reporters here.

He suggested that India could impose some kind of trade sanction against Malaysia to "pressurise" it to provide ethnic Indians their rights.

"We know they (Malaysian authorities) will come hard at us. They are trying to kill the struggle of Indians by charging us and denying us our genuine rights. We need support and India can do much more," Moorthy said.

"A fear has been instilled successfully for the last 50 years and we expect more from the Indian side," he added.

Ethnic Indians in Malaysia have alleged discrimination at the hands of the government there and a recent protest by the community was met with force.

Some political parties here have been demanding that the matter be taken up with the Malaysian authorities, but the Government feels it cannot take it too far as it is Malaysia's internal matter.

Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had last week guardedly voiced concern over the developments in Malaysia, saying "the Government is worried whenever any person of Indian Origin is in trouble anywhere in the world."

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200712062120.htm

Malaysian mala fides by Ashok Malik (Pioneer, Dec. 7, 2007)

Malaysia's Indians don't send home dollars, don't become CEOs of IT start-ups; they haven't even produced a VS Naipaul. Consequently, in contrast to the dissertations on the NRI community in the United States, the formerly east African Indians in Britain and the Indian diaspora's experience in the Caribbean, there is a paucity of even basic information on the ethnic Indians living off the Straits of Malacca.

The recent spurt in anti-Indian -- or anti-Hindu, as few would argue that in Malaysia the terms aren't coterminous -- has, in a sense, forced Indians to confront a rare species of Person of India Origin: One that does not adhere to the stereotype of educated, upwardly mobile and socially hip.

Malaysian Indians are predominantly uneducated; few are white collar professionals, fewer still own property. Drug addiction is a problem among the young. At the bottom of the heap, they do low-end jobs and run errands for ethnic Chinese crime syndicates.

Even the belief that all two million Indians in Malaysia are one un-segregated whole is a simplistic inaccuracy. True, some 90 per cent of the two million are Tamils, but this includes at least three strands. The majority makes up the underclass. A sprinkling of educated Tamils man Government hospitals as doctors or are in the middle rungs of the civil service.

There is a third slice. When the British imported indentured labour from Tamil Nadu, to maintain "their own system of checks and balances", they also brought in overseers from among Sri Lankan Tamils. The latter see themselves as superior to the plantation workers -- yet they all get categorised as 'Indians'.

That aside, a sprinkling of Christians, largely of Malayalee descent, also make up the Indian community. A small band of Sikhs, descended from policemen the colonial Government brought to the Malay Peninsula in the late 19th century, maintains a strict community structure anchored by the local gurdwara.

It is interesting that there is an almost total absence of Muslims in Malaysia's Indian community. From the 1980s onwards, Malaysia has rapidly turned to Wahaabi-style Islam as a marker of identity. It has sought to make Malay synonymous with Muslim, marrying ethnicity to religion in Government-sponsored social engineering.

As such, many ethnic Indian Muslims have chosen to identify themselves as Malays, either by citing inter-marriage or simply by emphasising their faith. There is even a word for these Indians turned Malays -- Mamaks.

It is piquant that Mr Mahathir Mohamad, who ruled Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, and discovered -- perhaps invented -- its Arabist Islamic soul, is descended from Keralite migrants. Mr Anwar Ibrahim, the former Deputy Prime Minister and opponent of both Mr Mohamad and current Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, is of Tamil descent, said to be proud of his "Iyer grandfather".

At least one Malay Minister has extended family in Uttar Pradesh and secretly visits his father's grave -- the father was a Mamak who wanted to be "buried at home" -- near Moradabad.

From Chola-era cultural and trade relations down to James Brooke, the Banaras-born 19th century English adventurer who became the 'White Rajah' of Sarawak, India has never been far away from Malay popular consciousness. To this day, for Malaysia's princelings, yellow is the colour of royalty, a rajabhishek-style sprinkling of water marks every coronation.
Given this history, what happened? Malaysia is today a society in denial. Just as individual Mamaks want to forget their Indian origin, the Malay leadership, collectively, would rather see themselves as part of the global Muslim community, as ethnically linked to the Chinese in the East Asian region -- anything but derived from Hinduism and India.

The domestic and external dimensions of the situation are not unrelated. When apartheid-period South Africa treated Indians as second class citizens, it was not necessarily sending a diplomatic message to the Government of India; it was merely being obnoxious. Malaysia is different. "Whenever the Malaysians want to hit out at their ethnic Indians, they snub India," says a veteran diplomat, "this time it is vice versa."

That is why the logic that New Delhi has no role in Kuala Lumpur's "internal issues", while seemingly persuasive, is flawed. India is integral to the drama. Anecdotal and empirical evidence is disturbing and difficult to ignore.

In recent years, officials point out, there has been a significant increase in Saudi-funded mosque construction in Malaysia. "It is the easiest way of collecting money from the Saudi Ambassador," goes one cynical comment. Many of these mosques have brought in Pakistani clerics. This has had its impact on Malay perceptions of both India and ethnic Indians.

That aside, the Chinese and Malaysian Governments are the closest allies in Greater East Asia. They have argued, so far successfully, that India is racially different and has no place in the inner circle in East Asia. Kuala Lumpur has been an obstacle in the path of the India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. Indian foreign policy has to confront the Malaysia question at some point.
What are India's options? Malaysia merits a sophisticated response beyond either rhetoric or gunboats. First, there has to be the recognition that New Delhi has a certain responsibility when it comes to safeguarding rights of overseas Indians, particularly Hindus.

There are moral as well as practical reasons for this. Pushed to the edge, where are Malaysia's Hindus going to come? To Chennai, where some of the richer ones already own houses.

Second, the traditional ethnic Indian party is the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC). The MIC is part of the ruling alliance and its leader, Mr Sami Velu, is Minister for Works. He uses his "Indian-ness" to promote business in the mother country, win Malaysian companies infrastructure contracts. Yet, the degree of community dissension against Mr Velu and the MIC now cannot be ignored. One insider describes him "as an old-style Bihar politician who thrives on keeping his supporters poor and badly educated". Another diplomat is blunt: "Mr Velu is the Indians' Uncle Tom."

Finally, India needs to revive a proposal, first made about five years ago, when Ms Veena Sikri was High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur, that it will support schools for Malaysia's Indian minority, flying in teachers from Tamil Nadu who will teach children both Tamil and English and help the ethnic Indians overcome the built-in biases of the Malaysian Government school system.

This is a system, incidentally, where the roll number on an answer sheet tells the examiner which race the candidate belongs to.

http://tinyurl.com/37nfjz

HT Correspondents, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, December 07, 2007
Last Updated: 01:14 IST(7/12/2007)

Govt shuns Malaysia Hindu rights leader

Having expressed its concern about the alleged discrimination of ethnic Indians in Malaysia officially, the government on Thursday chose not to meet P. Waytha Moorthy, head of the Hindu Rapid Action Force, even as senior BJP leaders met him.

Waytha Moorthy, in Delhi to garner support from the government, failed to meet the Prime Minister, external affairs minister and senior foreign ministry officials but did get an audience with the BJP’s LK Advani and Jaswant Singh.

He told them that around 10,000 Hindu temples have been demolished in Malaysia in the last 50 years, adding: “Hindus are being stripped of their dignity and self-respect” by this vindictive action. He also said there is a steady attempt to “Islamise" Malaysia’s multi-religious population and Shariat rulings are being made binding on non-Muslims”.

The BJP parliamentary party later issued a statement condemning the Malaysian government’s policy on ethnic Indians.

http://tinyurl.com/23ozv7

BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY Parliamentary Wing Press Statement

New Delhi – 6 December 2007

BJP condemns persecution of Hindus and PIOs in Malaysia ; demand government action in the matter

The Bharatiya Janata Party strongly condemns the Malaysian government’s policy of subjecting the country’s Hindu community in particular, and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) in general, to discrimination, injustice and persecution.

The BJP urges the UPA government to take up this matter with the Malaysian government at the highest level and with the seriousness it deserves. The Government of India should demand an immediate reversal of this anti-Hindu and anti-PIO policy, which runs counter to the obligation of all nations in the world to protect well-established and universally recognized human rights of all human beings, especially those belonging to minority communities.

Shri P. Waytha Moorthy, Chairman of the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) in Malaysia , today called on Shri L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha), Shri Jaswant Singh, Leader of the Opposition (Rajya Sabha) and other senior leaders of the BJP, and apprised them of the plight of the “forgotten”, “marginalized” and “persecuted” Hindu community in his country. Some of the specific details given by him were as follows.

About 10,000 Hindu temples have been demolished in Malaysia since its independence fifty years ago. Most of these existed from the British colonial days and were as old as 150 years. “Hindus are stripped of their dignity and self-respect by this act” by the vindictive manner in which their temples have been razed to the ground.
There has been a steady attempt to “Islamise” Malaysia ’s multi-faith population (in which Muslims constitute 55%). The Shariah Court ’s rulings are being made binding on non-Muslims, especially in matters of inter-faith marriages and the religious identity of children.

Nearly 70% of the PIO population in Malaysia , which has been living in that country for over 200 years, remain manual labourers, living on daily wages. This underclass remains oppressed and suppressed, with the government making no special budgetary provision for their economic and educational advancement.

The number of Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam schools has dwindled drastically, even though the population has increased manifold. The government’s neglect of the educational needs of the Indian community is deliberate, since the authorities want to cut off the PIOs’ cultural and spiritual heritage.

Shri Waytha Moorthy, who is a leading lawyer, also shared information about the Mayasian government’s repressive crackdown of the peaceful, legitimate and democratic protests by the Hindus. He underscored the fact that the Hindus in Malaysia have always been loyal, law-abiding and peaceful citizens. Three lawyers involved in taking up the cases of HINDRAF and its supporters have been charged with sedition for speaking the truth. Thirty-one participants in the recent massive protest rally organized by HINDRAF have been falsely charged with murder under a law that denies them bail. “All this is being done to instill fear among the Hindus, so that they will not come out again to protest,” Shri Moorthy said.

The BJP believes that India has a moral obligation to take up the case of injustice and persecution of Malaysian Hindus and PIOs with the authorities in Kuala Lumpur . The UPA government cannot shirk from this responsibility either out of its commitment to anti-Hindu pseudo-secularism or under the pretext that this is an internal matter of Malaysia.

Mr. Lee Kuan Yew meets Shri L.K. Advani;
Shares concern over the condition of PIOs in Malaysia

Singapore ’s elder statesman and former Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, who now holds the position Minister Mentor, today called on Shri L.K. Advani at his residence. The two leaders had discussions on wide-ranging issues, in which the persecution of PIOs in Malaysia also figured. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew not only fully shared Shri Advaniji’s appraisal of, and concerns over, the situation, but also said, “Discrimination on religious grounds in Malaysia affects not merely the Hindus. All the non-Muslim communities in Malaysia – Buddhists, Taoists and Christians – are getting worried.”

Enclosure: Copy of HINDRAF’s memorandum to Shri L.K. Advani Read at: http://bjp.org/Press/dec_2007/dec_0607_p.pdf

Advani to take up with PM plight of Malaysian Hindus
Friday December 7 2007 00:00 IST (New Indian Express)

Anita Saluja

NEW DELHI: Leader of Opposition L K Advani along with Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh would take up the issue of the plight of the Malaysian Hindus with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Advani gave this assurance when Malaysian Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) Chairman P Waytha Moorthy on Thursday called on Advani. Waytha Moorthy met Advani and Jaswant Singh and other senior leaders of the BJP and apprised them of the plight of the nearly forgotten, marginalised and persecuted Hindu community in his country. About 10,000 Hindu temples have been demolished in Malaysia since its independence 50 years ago. Most of these existed from British colonial days and nearly 150-yearsold. Hindus are stripped of their dignity and self-respect by this act by the vindictive manner in which their temples have been razed to the ground.
The BJP strongly condemned the Malaysian Government’s policy of subjecting the country’s Hindu community in particular and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) in general, to discrimination, injustice and persecution. The BJP urged the UPA Government to take up this matter with the Malaysian Government at the highest-level with the seriousness it deserves. The Government should demand an immediate reversal of this anti-Hindu and anti-PIO policy, which runs counter to the obligation of all nations in the world to protect well-established and universally recognised human rights of all human beings, especially those belonging to minority communities.
It was pointed out that there has been a steady attempt to Islamise Malaysia's multi-faith population (in which Muslims constitute 55 per cent). The Shariah Court ’s rulings are being made binding on non-Muslims, especially in matters of inter-faith marriages and the religious identity of children. Nearly 70 per cent of the PIO population in Malaysia, which has been living in that country for over 200 years, remain manual labourers, living on daily wages. This underclass remains oppressed and suppressed, with the government making no special budgetary provision for their economic and educational advancement.
The number of Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam schools has dwindled drastically, even though the population has increased manifold. The Government’s neglect of the educational needs of the Indian community is deliberate, since the authorities want to cut off the PIOs’ cultural and spiritual heritage.

Waytha Moorthy, who is a leading lawyer, also shared information about the Malayasian Government’s repressive crackdown of the peaceful, legitimate and democratic protests by the Hindus. He underscored the fact that the Hindus in Malaysia have always been loyal, law-abiding and peaceful citizens. Three lawyers involved in taking up the cases of HINDRAF and its supporters have been charged with sedition for speaking the truth.
Thirty-one participants in the recent massive protest rally organized by HINDRAF have been falsely charged with murder under a law that denies them bail. "All this is being done to instill fear among the Hindus, so that they will not come out again to protest," Moorthy said.

Singapore ’s elder statesman and former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who now holds the position of Minister Mentor, on Thursday also called on Advani at his 30, Prithviraj Road residence here. The two leaders held discussions on wide-ranging issues, in which the persecution of PIOs in Malaysia also figured. Lee Kuan Yew not only fully shared Advaniji’s appraisal of, and concerns over, the situation, but also said, "Discrimination on religious grounds in Malaysia affects not merely the Hindus. All the non-Muslim communities in Malaysia - Buddhists, Taoists and Christians - are getting worried."
http://tinyurl.com/yq8paf