Friday, October 24, 2008

Arrest of Hindraf Group

I received a text messages last night on the arrest of Hindraf supporters and was very disturbed by it. I made a few calls to verify the story. This is not something we need right now.

According to STAR, twelve people, including a six-year-old child, “representing Hindraf” were arrested outside the Prime Minister’s Office at Putrajaya yesterday. One of the three women picked up was K.Shanti, wife of Hindraf chairman P.Wathyamoorthy and the child is believed to be his daughter, Vwaishhnavi.

I am sure the police have the legal justification to make the arrest. However, I can’t comprehend the wisdom or rather the lack thereof, in making the arrest. I doubt if Hindraf supporters posed a security threat to the Prime Minister. We are not sure if the police were ‘provoked’ to make the arrest but in any event a softer approach in dispersing the supporters would have been commendable.

I was relieved to find out later that at least K.Shanti and Vwaishhnavi were subsequently released. Ten others were detained. It was reported that the supporters claimed that they came in their “individual capacity and not under the banner of Hindraf”.

Be that as it may, there are few questions that need to be answered.

In the first place, was there a real and urgent need to arrest the supporters? Wouldn’t a softer approach suffice under the present situation? The arrest would only further fuel the anger of Indian Community towards the government. Secondly, what is the need to arrest the women, even more so, the child Vwaishhnavi?

The government should not be surprised by the unconventional method used by Hindraf supporters. What do you expect from family members and supporters of those that are detained without trial? Had the government not resorted to detention without trial under ISA, those gathered at Putrajaya would not have had the moral platform to ‘appeal’ to the Prime Minister directly.

On the other side of the coin, there are also a few questions that need to be answered by those gathered at Putrajaya.

Why on earth do you need to “deliver their Deepavali wishes” to a man that does not celebrate it? Wasn’t enough damage done to their own cause by delivering “Hari Raya Wishes” at PWTC a few weeks ago? Please, the PM wasn’t even home. He is in China right now.

Why drag a six year old child into all these? Yes, the sight of a six year old will tug everyone’s heart string but hasn’t this sentiment been used once too often? What about the emotional scars that might haunt the girl when she grows up? We do not know for sure whether it will, but shouldn’t the girl be spared the pain when there is doubt?

And whose idea was it to say that they came “in their individual capacity?” The authorities are not THAT stupid! Yeah, now they have arrested everyone to verify if they came under Hindraf or under their individual capacity.

And who gets blamed for all this? MIC of course!

HAPPY DEEPAVALI!

Murugesan Sinnandavar

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Muru,

Sir, while I am not a fan of the police force, in the case of Vwaishhnavi, P.Wathyamoorthy’s daughter, I have to ask what else they could have done.

All the ill advised members of Hindraf were arrested, including K.Shanti the child’s mother. By taking the child into custody, the police had assured that the child was at least with her parent.

The Malaysian police have never been an organization that I admire or respect. I view them as a joke and one of the most corrupt organizations in the world. However in this instance they had acted with much better judgment then the other party involved in the fiasco including the poor child’s mother, K.Santhy who willingly allowed her child to be used and tormented. (This should say alot about Hindraf's ruthlessness and lack of judgment)

I commend you on your fair and unbiased view and criticism on the unfortunate event.

Happy Deepavali and God Bless

Regards,

Rajan

Anonymous said...

Mr Muru,

Eventhough I dont agree with you entirly, I do appreciate you for your unbiased views and comments in this post. And the best part of the post....

"And who gets blame for this, MIC of course!" :) Nice

regards,
Murali