Anwar calls Hindraf "racist"

Anwar calls Hindraf "racist".

They were not racist when they supported him.

They were not racist when they voted for him.

When they ask "what have you done for us in return?", they are now "RACIST".

Well done Anwar!

Here is an open letter from Mr Naragan to Anwar

Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim (DSAI),

At the outset of this piece, let me set the tone – the days of manipulation of the Aiyyas are gone. You cannot go on with your opportunistic ways and become the Prime Minister you want to be, by buying the votes of the Aiyyas for a bottle of cheap liquor. You are not getting to Putrajaya, without first settling your scores with the Aiyyas. And there is a lot to settle and you know it.

We do not need you as a leader of this country in your present manipulative form, because, from our Aiyyas view point, it is no different to us than what Najib has to offer. There is no real and substantive change.

Dear DSAI, you have the audacity to call Hindraf a racist organsiation after having ridden to victory in 5 states on shouts of “Makkal Sakthi” a Hindraf Slogan in the last GE by stealing our votes with those shouts. You are exposing the opportunist in you.

DSAI. you are responsible for creating this racially bigoted system in Malaysia, in the first place.. Go back to the 80s and the 90s, Do you remember you were the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1983, Minister of Agriculture in 1984, Minister of Education in 1986, Finance Minister in 1991 and DPM in 1993 – all in, a total of at least 15 years in setting up and fine tuning the current racist regime. What we have today is the outcome of exactly the policies of your past. You are responsible for what we have today, DSAI.

We in Hindraf and HRP are struggling tooth and nail to change exactly that exploitative system, that you are responsible for setting up. You call us racists for doing that. What does that make you, dear DSAI, the creator of that system. Again, I say it, it was in your and Mahathir’s heydays that this racist system was crafted and fine tuned. It was in this period that marginalization of the Indians accelerated.

DSAI,.we have had enough, please stop your slick acts. We are no more the Aiyya’s that you and the likes of you take us to be. We are now just as savvy as you, if not more, because of our experiences of repeated betrayals.

So, please start coming clean - if you truly want to make it as the next PM. You will only get there, with complete Indian support and you know that. If you want that complete Indian support, then start getting away from your own ghost and start to listen. Shouts of Makkal Sakthi is not going to get you there, we have learnt that lesson only too well.

Naragan

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

Free ISA Detainees

MIC Youth had a meeting with the representatives of 96 Indian based NGOs at the MIC HQ today. At the end of the meeting, MIC Youth together with the Indian NGOs called on the PM to release the Hindraf 5 and other ISA detainees who are not a threat to National Security.

This is not the first time MIC Youth or MIC leaders had called for the release of the Hindraf 5. Dato Seri S. Samy Vellu had called for their release at a meeting with MIC Division Chairmen in April 2008. Of course that call was scorned upon by Hindraf supporters and UMNO leaders alike. Uncle Sam was mercilessly hit both ways for the call.

MIC Youth had also made a similar call during our Election Post-mortem Session in Penang around the same time. That too had its critics.

I know this call will once again be viewed with scepticism but we are putting all that aside and will concentrate on the job at hand. Although Hindraf is highly critical of MIC and supports Pakatan Rakyat, MIC will continue to work to secure their release. It is only the right thing to do.

At times we have to make the call openly and sometimes we have to work within the system.

Yesterday YBhg Dato Seri S. Samy Vellu and YB Dato Dr. Subramaniam once again met the PM to call for the review of the detention of Hindraf 5. Hopefully, with their internal pressure together with the open call by MIC Youth and Indian NGOs, something good will come out of it before Deepavali.

I know that MIC will still be criticized by the very people whose release we are working to secure but for us that is a secondary issue. The detention of any human being without trial is inhumane and is against basic human rights. ISA was enacted to deal with armed terrorist and not with people that you strongly disagree with.

On a personal note, I would also like to call for the release of Raja Petra and all other ISA detainees that had not resorted to violence or arms to achieve their political aim. Charge them for sedition or under any other law but don't deny them their day in court!

Malaysian Indians should stop questioning each others' motive and concentrate on securing the release of ISA detainees.

In the case of YB Teresa Kok, all Chinese organizations and political parties put aside their differences and were unanimous in their call for her release. DAP didn't question MCA or Gerakan's call for her release and vice versa.

Why should Indians bicker about who is having what agenda while the detainees rot in prison?

Lets get them out of Kamunting first!

Murugesan Sinnandavar

Vasanthakumar a SB Plant? How Convenient!

The Hindraf Chairman, Waytha Moorthy realeased a brief Press Statement on the 23^rd August 2008. In it he dropped a bombshell that one of the five ISA Detainees, Vasanthakumar is a SPECIAL BRANCH PLANT!

Waytha Moorthy went on to explain that “It came to my attention in January 2008 that Vasanthakumar has been planted by the Police Special Branch to infiltrate HINDRAF and upon further investigations the fact became apparent.”

A police special branch plant? He knew it before the General Election and kept quiet about it? Why didn’t he blow the whistle then and further damage BN’s chances?

Come on, not only is this far fetched but it is such a damning accusation against Vasanthakumar. I do not know Vasanthakumar personally nor his background. However I know that this accusation must deeply hurt Vasanthakumar’s family members. To have a son, husband or father detained without trial is bad enough without having one of his fellow comrades call him a turncoat.

Not only were the five detainees denied the right to be heard in court, now one of them is being accused by their chairman of being a government spy without having the opportunity to defend himself.

Regardless of the veracity of these allegations, Vasanthakumar had been condemned to a fate worse then his ISA detention.

Despite his sacrifices, Vasanthakumar will never be able to walk tall in the community as there will always be a lingering doubt about his genuineness. It is almost impossible to disprove such an allegation.

Waytha Moorthi also accused V.K.Regu the ex-Pro tem Secretary and Ramachandran Meyappan alias Ramaji, the Spiritual Advisor of HINDRAF of colluding with Vasanthakumar to “take over the leadership of HINDRAF.”

Now this raises questions about the transparency and the judgment of those that lead HINDRAF. Ramaji is the “Spiritual Advisor” of HINDRAF. If your spiritual advisor is not in sync with your cause, one wonders who is?

How did you go about choosing your spiritual advisor in the first place? Isn’t he supposed to be your organization’s internal compass? Either you chose a faulty compass or your ship is sailing in the wrong direction. Either way you got it wrong!

Waytha Moorthi went on to apologize for concealing these crucial facts all these while. According to him, he did this “solely to protect the unity and integrity of HINDRAF and to avoid the breakup of HINDRAF”.

One begins to wonder what else is Waytha Moorthi concealing from the public in order to avoid “the breakup of HINDRAF?” Perhaps he will one day admit that the people’s genuine support for HINDRAF had been hijacked by certain political personalities for their own agenda?

If it is true Vasanthakumar is an agent of Special Branch, one wonders who else in HINDRAF is an agent of God knows what agency from God knows what country?

Instead of such outlandish accusations isn’t it better for the leaders of HINDRAF to look at their internal squabbles and settle it internally?

In a way, I do understand the dilemma faced by HINDRAF’s leadership. As in any organization, when it grows bigger and becomes more powerful, internal pressure and human nature will make it more difficult to maintain a cohesive front. It is something that they must deal with. This is when the original aim and its delivery on promises will be tested. It is time to walk the talk, not a time to keep blaming others.

How long will HINDRAF keep on blaming everything that is wrong on the BN Government and MIC? Now that they have internal squabbles, there it is again, the convenient bogeyman to point the accusing finger.

Recently someone wrote in Malaysiakini that HINDRAF had been betrayed by the PR in the four new states ruled by them. The writer went on to state that nothing much had changed and PR failed to deliver on the election promises.

Actually, PR didn’t betray the Indian Community.

We were betrayed by the people that asked us to vote for the PR blindly!

PR was just being a political organization that made use of the opportunity.

Mind you, BN had its faults and that is the reason why we performed poorly on GE12. It wasn’t anyone’s doing but ours. We admit that.

Likewise, whether HINDRAF is to progress as an organization or falter will depend entirely on HINDRAF and not outside forces.

Please stop blaming everything on the Government, BN and MIC. Perhaps MIC’s splinter group could be up to something with HINDRAF’s splinter group. We do not know.

MIC has no time or the inclination to meddle into the affairs of others. We are busy getting our act together and reinventing ourselves in order to serve the community better.

Stop crying wolf all the time for people will stop paying attention after a while.

Murugesan Sinnandavar