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A step forward in Malaysia

After an ill-judged and near-panic reaction to protests organised by Malaysian Indians, most of them of Tamil origin, the Malaysian government is beginning to moderate its course. The withdrawal of attempt-to-murder charges against the protesters, who did nothing more than hold a rally defying a court order against street demonstration, can be the first step in addressing the real grievances of underprivileged Malaysian Tamils. The over-the-top charges were evidently meant to intimidate the leaders of the umbrella organisation, the Hindu Rights Action Force, who were raising uncomfortable questions about racial and religious discrimination. The authoritarian tactics only helped to unify the protesters and to draw the attention of the international community to rights violations in Malaysia. Now, as part of a modified strategy, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is seeking to make a distinction between protesters with genuine grievances who were “misled” by Hindraf and the hardcore Hindraf leadership. After the arrest of five Hindraf leaders, who are now being detained without trial under the draconian Internal Security Act, Mr. Abdullah met with leaders of non-governmental organisations representing Indian groups in an attempt to win over moderate elements and address the issues through alternative channels.

The stance of the Hindraf leaders has been provocative in nature. Certainly the charge of “ethnic cleansing” has no relation to the situation in Malaysia. By seeking to organise Malaysian Indians under a Hindu identity, Hindraf is doing them a great disservice. Malaysia is, self-admittedly, a non-secular state. While the demolition of Hindu temples is a live issue in Islamic Malaysia, to present it and other grievances in communal colours is sheer folly. The Malaysian Indian Congress, a constituent of the ruling coalition, must take some of the blame for ceding ground to platforms such as Hindraf. By toeing the official line to a fault, the MIC lost much of its representative character, and Mr. Abdullah was forced to look towards other organisations to invest his own efforts at addressing the grievances of underprivileged Malaysian Indians with some credibility. The MIC could have taken a leaf out of the book of the Sri Lankan leader S. Thondaman, who over decades deployed his party, the Ceylon Workers’ Congress, to effectively fight for the rights of plantation workers of recent Indian origin while remaining a part of successive governments. Malaysia must follow up the withdrawal of the serious charges against the protestors by trying to arrive at a just solution to the long-standing grievances of underprivileged Malaysian Indians.

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