Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Indian Voters Kingmakers Once Again
- Red faces over ‘1314’ mistake
- The other Allah debate
- Role of Sabah and Sarawak in nation-building
- Will the Indian Muslim wish come true?
- Indian Nation in Malaysia needs to get its politics and relationships right
- Stop violence against women
| Indian Voters Kingmakers Once Again Posted: 05 Jan 2013 10:32 AM PST
Currently just relying on the Malay and Chinese support is not going to be enough either. PR will still require the support of the Indian voters at levels similar to which it had in the 2008 GE. The 99.5% geographical distribution of Indian voters in the bread and butter states of Peninsular Malaysia, gives it added strength in the collective voting strength in the next General Election. Paraman Subramaniam 165 out of the 222 Parliamentary seats in Malaysia lie in Peninsular Malaysia. This translates to 75% of all seats. Focusing valuable resources and campaign time on Sabah and Sarawak may be necessary but it cannot be done at the expense of Peninsular Malaysia. First of all Sarawak state elections is already over. PR's influence on East Malaysia is not as strong as it is on Peninsular Malaysia. The city/town seats are winnable but the interiors are impenetrable, not just logistically but also due to poor Internet/alternative media coverage. Polling agents and counting agents from PR in these areas are also minimal. The elections in these areas are literally at the mercy of the heavyweight BN machinery on elections day. The internal politics within these states are complicated and they do view politicians from Peninsular Malaysia with suspicion. The 9 states in Peninsular Malaysia (Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, W.P, N.S, Malacca, Johor and Pahang) contain 140 Parliamentary seats which is 85% of all Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia. In fact these states in total consist of almost 2/3rd of all Parliamentary seats in Malaysia hence the term "bread and butter states" is best applicable. A strong showing of PR in these bread and butter states will draw all victors/political parties post GE like a magnet towards PR, especially those from East Malaysia. It is as simple as that. Moreover PR's potential nadir strength also lies in these bread and butter states.
Selangor new voters from 2008 up to Dec 31 2011, show that almost 50k new Indians voters have registered to vote. This accounts to almost half of the new Chinese voters and also almost 1/3 of new Malay voters in Selangor. 25% of the 200k new Indian voters are concentrated in Selangor. Remarkably Indians have also registered the highest percentage rise per race in new voter registration since 2008 in all the bread and butter states. Selangor registering a 22.40% rise with Perak and NS recording 16.03% and 16.82% rise respectively since 2008. Malacca has recorded a 45.91% increase in new Indian voters. For comparison sake Selangor only registered a 5-6% rise in new Indian voter registration during the period between 2004 and 2007. It is apparent that there has been a lot of new Indian voter awareness and enlightenment of their political plight and strength. This spike in new Indian voter registration can be attributed to Hindraf's emergence as the front leader in the Malaysian Indian political landscape and dynamics since 2007.
The 15/38 Hindraf project appears to have also contributed to this rise in new Indian voter registration. Hindraf has paid paramount importance in voter registration as well as responsibility as a voter to the Indian community as a means to increase its political weight in the arena of Malaysian politics so that political solutions of the marginalized Indians problems can be expedited. BN has for decades ignored these problems and allowed the marginalized Indians issues now to tilt towards critical point. PR's emphasis on Indian representatives as versus Indian representation has not given these critical issues its due importance. For these reasons Hindraf has filled this vacuum of Indian leadership with their selfless sacrifices. PR feels that it could be able to win comfortably in the next GE with just relying on predominantly strong Malay and Chinese support. However there have been accusations and suspicions that BN is aiming to sabotage this by the introduction and injection of phantom/foreign voters together with dubious voters into the Electoral roll. Looking at the alarming rise and exponential growth in new voters, especially the Bumiputra voters in numbers, particularly in key constituencies that appear to be too close to call, these suspicions may have some justification. The exponential growth of new voters since 2008 is 1 : 1.8 : 5.32 : 6.5 : 8.39 is staggering! (N/p 2012 data is only up to June 30th 2012 and has been estimated to at least double 651,006 to give a 8.39% increase) It has been common knowledge that BN's primary aim in the next GE is to secure a 2/3rd majority in Parliament and to win back the rich state of Selangor. BN is also feverishly working behind the scenes to prove that the outcome of the results in the next GE will show that PR has lost a big majority of the Malay support as this will be tantamount to pulling the life support system of the PR coalition. It is also rumored that Dr Mahathir's expertise is being sought and is still influential behind the scenes as well as calling the shots in the BN's election machinery.
Dr Mahathir has in the past been accused to have orchestrated Sabah's 'Project M' where thousands of Filipino Muslims were given Malaysian citizenship's so that they could vote in favour of UMNO and dilute the predominantly Christian majority voters influence in the state of Sabah. During Dr Mahathir's era also, hundreds of thousands of Malaysian born Indians were denied their citizenship's in Malaysia rendering them stateless and having no voting rights at all. In the 1999 hotly contested GE, Dr Mahathir's plan of calling the GE early had nullified Anwar Ibrahim's supporters numbering 650k who had newly registered to vote, disqualifying them to vote on a technicality of not registering 6 months before the GE. Reflecting on all these factors there appears to show a certain pattern developing in the current period leading to the next GE. It must be noted that phantom/foreign voters are suspected to have been added into the Malay category of the Electoral roll as this will dilute the PR's Malay voters. Pekan (Najib) has had a 26.39% rise and Sembrong (Hishamudin) a whopping 34.86% rise in new Malay voters. DSAI himself appears to be repeating the same mistake of his 1998/1999 Reformasi movement where he then mainly focused on the Malay supporters which proved on the hindsight to be insufficient for him to win. Currently just relying on the Malay and Chinese support is not going to be enough either. PR will still require the support of the Indian voters at levels similar to which it had in the 2008 GE. The 99.5% geographical distribution of Indian voters in the bread and butter states of Peninsular Malaysia, gives it added strength in the collective voting strength in the next General Election. Currently there are no Indian leaders in this country who can muster that kind of overwhelming Indian support towards PR other than HINDRAF. HINDRAF can not only rally the Indian support but more importantly make them to turn up to vote on elections day. Delaying attempts to forge a coalition and corporation with the well oiled election machinery of HINDRAF is tantamount to shooting PR's own two feet.
MIC claims to have almost half of the Indian voters (400k) secured (Malay Mail 15/10/12). PR is estimated to command anywhere between 30-50% of the Indian voters support. However there appears to be a significant difference in the value of both these opposing camps Indian support. MIC Indian voters support is traditionally in rural areas and in the outskirts of cities where else PR's Indian support is in the cities. PR is expected to face stiff opposition in the rural areas and outskirts of cities and as such their lack in Indian support in these areas will be costly. PR will require the SYNERGY of all the 3 major races in one direction against BN to topple the 55 year regime.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:34 AM PST
DAP leaders say it is a computing glitch but some have described the shocking revisions to DAP election results three weeks after the polls as Ubah Rocket Style. The biggest irony of course is that this is the party that has been trying to tell the Election Commission how to do its job. The folk in the Election Commission are probably having the last laugh now. Joceline Tan, The Star AIYOOOOOO! How can?" That was the SMS reaction of one DAP MP after learning of his party's election fiasco. "It's what I would call a perception disaster," the DAP MP said when contacted. The blunder in the party's election result has left DAP leaders red-faced and many of its members angry and astounded. Another DAP figure described it as a "joke". Nothing like this, he said, had ever happened in the party, where the winner was actually the loser and the loser is now the winner. "I believe it was a genuine mistake but I feel sad," he said. On Thursday, the DAP said a "technical glitch" had caused errors in the result of the party election which took place on Dec 15. The mistake apparently occurred during a cut-and-paste job after the results were tabulated. The party's election returning officer Pooi Weng Keong said that grassroots worker Vincent Wu, who had won the sixth spot in the 20-member central executive committee (CEC) did not actually win. Instead, the party's new Malay star Zairil Khir Johari had managed to squeeze into the 20th spot and was the winner. Wu had only received 669 votes and not 1,202 as previously reported. As such, he had dropped to No. 26 in the new results. Zairil who was reported to have received 305 votes earlier actually got 803 votes under the new results. The Cantonese-speaking members in the party are calling the event "1314" because the mistake was announced in the year 2013, in the first month and on the fourth day. In Cantonese, "1314" means "one survives, another dies". Some party members are upset that the party has taken three weeks to correct the situation. In the meantime, they said Umno had a field day bashing the party for not electing a Malay into the CEC because of the mistake. Pooi detected the mistake a day after the election and immediately notified secretary-general Lim Guan Eng. It was then decided that its latest recruit Ong Kian Ming lead an internal audit. Sources said the whole thing was kept under wraps because the party was unsure how to handle it. When the outcome of the audit was presented to the CEC, a discussion was held on the impact of going public with it. One view was that the results had been announced, there was no challenge to it and they should let sleeping dogs lie. But the CEC decided that they had to come clean and own up to the mistake because something so sensational was bound to leak. One party leader then insisted on a gag order on who could speak on the issue but was over-ruled. However, party leaders have been unwilling to speak on the record about this because it is simply too embarrassing. No matter how they talk around it, the fact remains that it was a big-time bungle in prime-time politics. As one party official admitted: "Our party members will accept what happened but people outside must think we are stupid. "If we can't even manage a simple election, how can we convince them that we can run the country?" The Star got wind of the matter when some DAP politicians tweeted about it on Thursday evening. It was so incredible that some journalists initially thought it was a hoax. It was only after a string of calls to verify the news and checking the party website that the journalists were convinced. The biggest irony of course is that this is the party that has been trying to tell the Election Commission how to do its job. The folk in the Election Commission are probably having the last laugh now. Read more at: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/1/5/nation/12536201&sec=nation
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 03 Jan 2013 03:20 PM PST
Mariam Mokhtar with Hannah Yeoh in London The word Allah has been used for hundreds of years in the Golden Chersonese or the Malay Peninsula without any problems. Mariam Mokhtar, FMT If politicians form the group of people whom we despise most, then the sanctimonious hypocrites have to come a close second. The holier-than-thou types make the lives of many people a misery. They judge others by a strict set of rules, to which many of them fail to adhere. The current Allah debate, sparked off by Penang's Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, is our latest political football. The government has to pretend it is the defender of Malay rights and so the Allah debate will never reach a satisfactory conclusion before GE-13. Umno Muslims must have a low opinion of their fellow Muslims if they think that the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims would lead to "confusion". If Muslims can be confused by their non-Muslim friends using the word "Allah" then perhaps, we should blame the Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, for an education system which churns out idiots. There is no confusion. The word Allah has been used for hundreds of years in the Golden Chersonese or the Malay Peninsula without any problems. The word Allah, from the Aramaic language, has been used in the middle-east, by both Muslims and Christians for thousands of years. Around 2009, a senior Umno politician decided to gain brownie points and spook the Muslim masses, by claiming that only Umno can protect the Malays, their faith, their rulers and their way of life, the word Allah was banned from use by non-Muslims. The rest as they say, is history. The "Allah" debate is nothing compared with the misuse of the words, "Insha Allah", a tag which many Muslims adjoin to the end of their statements. The misuse of "Insha Allah", is more insidious, affects both Muslims and non-Muslims, in and out of Malaysia, and is a bane in our lives. Some Muslims liberally lace their speech with "Insha Allah". How many times have some Muslims told us that they would do something, and then end their statements with "Insha Allah"? How often has that commitment failed to be fulfilled? The following are some of the ways many Muslims have abused the words "Insha Allah": "I will check out the contract requirements by the end of the week, Insha Allah." "When I finish shopping, I will meet you at the library, Insha Allah". "Don't worry, I will drive mother to her friend's house, Insha Allah." "The cheque will be posted before the end of the month, Insha Allah." "Leave it to me. I will make sure she gets to her class on time, Insha Allah." "Trust me, I will sign the documents before the deadline, Insha Allah." Breaking promises In my experience, the people in the above examples used the words "Insha Allah" as an excuse to break their promise. They may have had no intention of keeping their promise, or they may have been too lazy to keep to their end of the deal, or found something more exciting to do instead. So they say that what happened was God's will. Perhaps, others have had different experiences or been more "lucky" with people who say "Insha Allah". For those who are not aware, the words "Insha Allah" means "If Allah wills it" or simply "God willing". To those of us who have been let down many times, "Insha Allah" might as well mean "maybe" or "If I can be bothered" or "I might do it, if I have nothing better to do". Whenever someone uses the words "Insha Allah", I know that person has no intention of carrying out his promise. Muslims who do not understand what the words truly mean, tend to use these words flippantly. Although some of the Muslims who use these words are sincere, the majority are not. First, they say "Insha Allah" because they realise that few people will question the power of God. Second, this cop-out clause is a useful excuse to explain why they failed to live up to their promise, because they will say, "God willed it". It would be nice if people were more open and admit that they could not fulfil the promise, rather than tell lies and invoke the name of God. Ultimately, it is not the faith in God that is tested, rather our trust and relationship in our friend, colleague or relative that is damaged. People who have worked in the middle-east will be only too familiar with the phrase, "Inkin bukra, Insha Allah" which means "Maybe tomorrow, God willing." This makes the word mañana sound like a call for immediate action. Returning to the Allah debate, Lim's Christmas message of 2012 failed to elicit the spirit of Christian cheer and goodwill from some Malaysians. The joyful tidings he was trying to raise, has started a raging debate, all because he urged Putrajaya to allow Christians to use the word "Allah" in the Malay version of the bible. So, instead of people lighting the Christmas pudding, Malaysia's latest defenders of Islam, a group of 100 members of the Pertubuhan Penyatuan Pembelaan Melayu Malaysia (PPPMM) staged a protest and burned portraits of Lim. READ MORE HERE: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/01/04/the-other-allah-debate/
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role of Sabah and Sarawak in nation-building Posted: 03 Jan 2013 12:08 PM PST
If Sabah and Sarawak did not contribute the 56 seats to the national parliament, would they receive the same treatment today? Would the BN withdraw its fixed deposits (special treatment) when Sabah and Sarawak could no longer offer better interest rates (electoral support)? Arnold Puyok, fz.com TO BUILD a nation is not easy. It took the Americans more than 200 years to finally find their identity. Hence, there surely is a lot of work to be done to transform Malaysia into a solid nation. It is indeed a work-in-progress. We must remember, Malaysia is just 49 years old (from its founding in 1963), way too young compared with major countries, such as the United States, China and India, just to name a few. In order to build a successful Malaysian nation, Malaysians must be willing to put aside their political and cultural differences. However, this will be an enormous challenge as not only are Malaysians divided politically and culturally, they are also divided regionally. A case in point is Sabahans and Sarawakians who are separated from their peninsular Malaysian counterparts by the South China Sea. The main challenge confronting the government of the day (and any government to come) is to bridge what I call the political and cultural gap in Malaysian society. This endeavour must start with the effort to truly integrate Sabah and Sarawak into the Federation of Malaysia. Since 2008, Sabah and Sarawak are considered by many as the ruling party Barisan Nasional's (BN) "fixed deposits". The label came after the East Malaysian states helped the BN return to power by contributing 56 parliamentary seats in the 2008 general election. These seats were crucial in ensuring the BN's slim electoral victory. Many analysts (including this writer) have predicted that the BN will return to power but not necessarily with Sabah and Sarawak as its fixed deposits anymore, depending on changes in the dynamics of local politics. Sabah and Sarawak's fixed deposits status has brought them to national prominence. Sabah, in particular, has been receiving numerous development assistances from the Federal Government. Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan Sabah received the largest financial allocation of more than RM16 billion. More Sabahans were also appointed to hold important positions in the federal cabinet. Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, for instance, was appointed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to helm the influential Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Afdal, the Ministry of Rural Development. These cabinet portfolios are normally reserved for key Umno leaders from peninsular Malaysia. Despite the special treatment given to Sabah and Sarawak, many are not happy with the fixed deposits label. They ask: if Sabah and Sarawak did not contribute the 56 seats to the national parliament, would they receive the same treatment today? Would the BN withdraw its fixed deposits (special treatment) when Sabah and Sarawak could no longer offer better interest rates (electoral support)? When the democratically elected PBS (Parti Bersatu Sabah) was in power, it was pushed into the political wilderness by the Mahathir administration simply because the party was championing state rights and autonomy. This caused Sabah to lag behind in terms of infrastructural development. Despite peninsular Malaysia's marked development progress, Sabah and Sarawak are still way behind. It is important for the government to set politics aside for the sake of nation-building. Sabah and Sarawak must not be regarded as fixed deposits anymore. Sabahans and Sarawakians have suffered a lot due to "bad politics" played by self-serving leaders. The Federal Government must not alienate Sabahans and Sarawakians just because they are politically and culturally different. Sabahans and Sarawakians are loyal Malaysian citizens who want to be treated equally as their fellow Malaysians in the peninsular Malaysia. If the government is serious about building a strong Malaysian nation, Sabahans and Sarawakians teach us that we all can live in peace and harmony if we are willing to accept each other's political and cultural differences. In Sabah and Sarawak, ethnic tolerance is high. There have never been any ethnic riots in Sabah and Sarawak throughout Malaysia's 49 years of history. Ethnic harmony is intact thanks to inter-ethnic marriages. Regional identity plays a more important role than do ethnicity and religion. It does not matter whether one is Kadazandusun, Bajau, Murut, Lundayeh or Bisaya, racial identity is not as strong as in peninsular Malaysia. While many of the indigenous people in Sabah and Sarawak have embraced either Islam or Christianity, they take pride in their cultural roots. That is why when the "Allah" issue came about, Sabahan Muslims came to defend the right of their Christian counterparts to use the word "Allah", including the Muslim chief minister. The same with Sarawak and its chief minister too. Read more at: http://fz.com/content/role-sabah-and-sarawak-nation-building
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Will the Indian Muslim wish come true? Posted: 03 Jan 2013 11:59 AM PST
Since the inception of Malaysia, the Indian Muslim community has been in search of an identity that will associate it with BN and the Malay-Muslim community. Ali Cordoba, FMT The rumour mill is spinning fast in Kuala Lumpur, with the business circle among the Indian Muslim community gearing for a massive Barisan Nasional victory in an apparent late January polls. Will this 13th general election be the one that will grant the Indian Muslims, lost in Malaysia's political doldrums, their silent wishes? These rumours, which are spreading like wild fires in Masjid India, for example, put the Indian Muslim community in perspective while several of the community leaders are said to be campaigning in favour of BN. Pro-BN banners are seen along the overcrowded Masjid India street. Some of the leading business outlets in the area have showed their preference for BN, with large banners erected on some buildings. Since the inception of Malaysia, the Indian Muslim community has been in search of an identity that would associate it with BN and the Malay-Muslim community. The formation of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma) in the mid-1970s – a group to represent the Indian Muslims in the political scene – had little impact in the community's quest for recognition. A recent flurry of activities by Kimma and its very recent association with BN did not altogether help the cause of the Indian Muslims. Although left in the lurch, a majority of the community would probably stick to the rule of supporting BN in order to maintain the favours and prevent a backlash against its businesses. With Kimma unable to press BN for the granting of the "Bumiputera" status to the Indian Muslims, the latter group is said to have fallen in a dilemma. From an Umno-BN point of view, not granting the demands of Kimma and sidelining the Indian Muslims as "others" in the Muslim community actually secures their blind support for the ruling coalition. The ruling government is aware that Kimma would never abandon BN or force the Indian Muslims to vote for Pakatan Rakyat. They would have too much to lose if they dropped BN for Pakatan at the last moment, thus the delaying tactics in the "talks" between Umno and Kimma on the fate of the "Mamak". Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/01/04/will-the-indian-muslim-wish-come-true/
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indian Nation in Malaysia needs to get its politics and relationships right Posted: 02 Jan 2013 10:17 AM PST
If Indians in the collective vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the opposition alliance, and hypothetically Barisan Nasional (BN) still manages to form the Federal Government, the community is not likely to see any change in its fate. If anything, they are likely to continue as scapegoats and be further victimized by the powers that be and those in the corridors of power and brutalized by the racist police. If Indians being wholly with the BN from 1957 to 2008 did not prevent their decline in the country, just think what will happen when the community is on the wrong side of the political fence? Joe Fernandez As the festive cheers end the year and a new one begins, the Indian Nation in Malaysia – a Nation without Territory within a Nation -- needs to think really long and hard about what the forthcoming 13th General Election means for them. Their past has caught up with them in the present to haunt their future. The 13th GE, more than the 12th GE, will be a watershed year for them in dealing with the politics of the nation. This is a time for Christmas wishes and making New Year Resolutions. If there's going to be a complete break with the past, Indians need to consider that politics for them cannot be what it means to those communities in Malaysia which have ethnic seats for the taking in Parliament and the state assemblies. Indians are the only community in Malaysia which doesn't have even one ethnic seat in Parliament or the state assemblies despite having a million voters on the electoral rolls and forming eight per cent of the 28 million population. Their marginalisation and disenfranchisement under the Umno regime over half a century has been complete. This is a grave human rights issue. The 8 per cent excludes at least 300,000 stateless and undocumented ethnic Indians in the country.
Mohd Khir Toyo exposed the problem of stateless, undocumented children To his credit, it was former Selangor Menteri Besar Mohd Khir Toyo who first conceded on the Government side the fact that there were 50,000 stateless Indian children in his state alone. Khir, the son of Javanese immigrants, was sore with Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) leaders on other issues and decided to take them down a peg or two with the stateless issue. The absence of ethnic seats for the Indians means that engaging in party politics and coalition politics will not help resolve their myriad socio-economic problems. This concept must be something to borne in mind by Indians who are now with political parties on both sides of the divide. While no one can force these members to leave their respective organisations, it would be the right thing to do if the Indian community is not to be further victimized in the aftermath of the 13th GE and other similar future outings. If Indians in the collective vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the opposition alliance, and hypothetically Barisan Nasional (BN) still manages to form the Federal Government, the community is not likely to see any change in its fate. If anything, they are likely to continue as scapegoats and be further victimized by the powers that be and those in the corridors of power and brutalized by the racist police. If Indians being wholly with the BN from 1957 to 2008 did not prevent their decline in the country, just think what will happen when the community is on the wrong side of the political fence?
Indians caught between the known devil and the unknown angel What can be said about BN can also be said about PR i.e. if the Indians root for BN, and PR comes in to form the Federal Government. PR, under the circumstances, will not have even moral obligations to the Indian Nation in Malaysia. One has to only look at the fate of the minorities in the MiddleEast and West Asia in the wake of the long civil war in Lebanon, US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the eruption of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. The Christian minorities here are on the run everywhere, victimized and persecuted by a newly-united majority community for having thrown in their lot for long with the "divide-and-rule" fallen regimes rather than taking a strictly neutral or apolitical stand. The US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe have opened their doors to them but not everyone has been able to escape the refugee camps or being reduced to the status of internally displaced persons. It's high time that Indians in Malaysia look at the tragic fate of the Christian minorities in MiddleEast and West Asia and decide whether this is what they want for themselves as well. The right way forward would be for Indian voters to come out and vote in full force on a non-political, non-party basis. Those incumbents who have been in a seat for three terms or more should be voted out. Other incumbents who have not performed and/or otherwise done nothing for the Indian community should also be voted out. This message needs to get out again and again until the Indian community sees the wisdom of it.
Indians should not vote for Indians to be in the legislature Thirdly, Indian should not vote for Indians to be in the legislature. Such Indians would be unable to do anything for the community and having them merely glosses over the problem and paints the impressions that the government is being shared fairly among all Malaysians. This is the proverbial fig leaf. Such Indian legislators become convenient scapegoats i.e. to be blamed by the non-Indian legislators when the Indian community complains about anything. However, Indians not voting for Indians is unlikely to prevent non-Indian voters rooting for Indian legislators. That's their prerogative. No self-respecting Indian should offer himself in the GE as that would be tantamount to further misleading the community and postponing badly-need solutions. The Government of the Day, whether from BN or PR, should consider that it would be in their interest to appoint Indians to the Senate and in the Government sector, especially statutory bodies, government companies and GLCs.
Non-Indian legislators should take up the plight of Indian Nation in Malaysia This would be a start for the Indian community to embark on the long and hard road towards its emergence as a force to be reckoned with in the mainstream. Individual non-Indian legislators, fearing defeat at the hands of Indian voters, are likely to take up the community's plight and make an attempt at resolving its myriad socio-economic problems. The list is long. At the macro level, the stateless and undocumented phenomenon needs to be brought to an end. At present, the Umno regime deliberately keeps the stateless and undocumented people as virtually slave labour in the twilight zone. Slavery is illegal under the Malaysian Constitution, international law and the UN Charter. The stateless don't figure in official statistics and the phenomenon further deprives Indians of additional votes. The Director-General of the National Registration Department (NRD) has prerogative and discretionary powers – can be determined by the Court – to resolve the stateless problem at the stroke of a pen but he refuses to do so because he's being forced by Umno to act as if he was a hardcore card-carrying racist member of the party. The Federal Government should appoint an apolitical ethnic Indian, a non-Muslim, as the Director-General of NRD and a non-Muslim Orang Asal – Murut, Dusun including Kadazan or urban Dusun, Dayak, and Orang Asli – as the Deputy Director-General of the NRD at least until the stateless problem in Malaysia is resolved. This is a human rights issue. Everyone has the right to an identity. To add insult to injury, illegal immigrants and foreign labour are being allowed in to compete with Indians in jobs which they had traditionally held. The Minimum Wage Act ensures that Malaysians will be discouraged from entering the job market at the lower levels which are being kept open for illegal immigrants and foreign labour who go on to pad the electoral rolls.
Indians can't get even cendol licences from the local authorities Again, at the macro level, the spectrum of administrative laws – government policies in action – burdening the Indian community in particular, should be done away. These policies are unconstitutional and therefore unlawful. An example is the fact that Indians can't get even cendol licences from local authorities, such licences being reserved solely for members of the Malay-speaking communities -- Bugis, Javanese, Minang, Acehnese, and Indian Muslims – who are Muslim. Another government policy which targets Indians is that which derecognizes foreign universities with a sizeable number of Malaysian Indian students. This is a policy put in place by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad whose people came from Kerala state in southwest India. The Hindu-Muslim rivalry and animosity in the Indian sub-continent has come to haunt Malaysia. Administrative laws also facilitate the ruling elite to plunder the Public Treasury from behind the racism (feelings of inferiority in this case), prejudice (being against something for no rhyme or reason) and opportunism (sapu bersih all opportunities) of the Umno regime. Just consider the US$ 44 billion wealth allegedly amassed by Mahathir during his 22 years in the Prime Minister's post. This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Syariah Court cannot be used against non-Muslims and conversions of non-Muslims should be ended. The stateless, for example, should not be forced to convert to Islam to get personal Malaysian documents. At the micro-level, there are 1001 issues as raised by Hindraf Makkal Sakthi and other Indian NGOs. Hopefully, Hindraf will remain apolitical and not degenerate and end up as another MIC.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 02 Jan 2013 10:11 AM PST
No, we don't promote guns in our movies but we do promote a certain way of treating women, one where it is deemed all right for women to be raped and then "redeem" herself by marrying her rapist. Marina Mahathir, The Star Rape and violence against women in general has nothing to do with sex or lust, but about power. THE year 2012 ended on a mixed note. On the bright side, despite people believing in the Mayans' alleged predictions, the world did not end. On the other hand, the end of the year saw a most gruesome crime being committed that ended with the death of a young woman. Regardless that it happened in India, the case of the young medical student gang-raped and beaten so viciously resonated with many of us here, especially with women. Facebook and Twitter were filled with many articles and comments about it. There were those who recoiled at the horror of it; there were also those who savoured the juicy details. Debates ensued as to why it happened. Many believe that this was the work of perverts. In many ways they are right. But perverts work in certain circumstances. For one thing they don't work where they are unlikely to be successful. A late-night bus where it would be easy to intimidate the victim is just one. Another is if the potential victim is a young woman who is physically less able to fight back. To say that such rapists are primarily motivated by lust is to introduce feelings that are not there or to equate lust always with violence. This was a gang-rape. How does each individual perpetrator have exactly the same "feelings" towards the victim? Doesn't the fact that they are in a group embolden them more, makes them feel more powerful? Isn't this yet another bit of proof that rape and violence against women in general has nothing to do with sex or lust but about power? Separate each individual of the gang and see if they are as brave. Neither is it a crime that's only found in other "less developed" countries. Let's not forget that we have had similar cases, with names like Noor Shuzaily, Canny Ong and Nurin Jazlin. These were no less horrible cases and in the case of little Nurin, still unsolved. Who knows how many more of these there are? Yet, do we do much soul-searching, let alone go out and hold protests and candlelight vigils as they have done in India? In India, things might finally change for women there. In Malaysia, nothing much has. We look in horrified derision at the United States with its absurd gun laws and where there is no will to do anything about a society where kids can have access to guns and easily kill so many others, as just happened in Newtown. We blame the movies for some of it. Yet, we don't apply the same insight to our own media. No, we don't promote guns in our movies but we do promote a certain way of treating women, one where it is deemed all right for women to be raped and then "redeem" herself by marrying her rapist. Once again the onus, burden and shame is on the woman victim and not the perpetrator. We also have movies where rape is seen as justified punishment for women who gossip, where the perpetrator of the crime is let off. So we cut out scenes of kissing but think it's okay for these sorts of messages to be kept. These are just a few of the ways in which women are put in their "place" every day. Today, the most popular local novels emphasise that a good woman is one who obeys her man, regardless of how unjust he may be to her. Our preachers instill in our men that even if they earn less and take no responsibility for their families, they are superior to women. Women do everything to keep their families together and put food on the table, and still are told that they are a degree less than men. No wonder then on social media, rape is still blamed on women and mostly on how they dress and behave. How that explains what happened to Noor Shuzaily who had her hair neatly covered and was on her way to work in the morning is a mystery. Should she not have worked outside the home at all? In 2013, I truly hope that Malaysians will finally take violence against women seriously. There is not a single woman who has not felt intimidated and unsafe when she is out alone, in the company of strangers or having to walk on the streets. There is not a mother who fears for her daughters every time they go out. Don't we all have daughters who are medical students just weeks away from getting married too, just like the girl in New Delhi? It all starts at the top. My vote will go to whichever government that will treat women with respect and stop violence against women. Happy New Year!
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan