Hindraf and PWTC

Below is a news story on a group of Hindraf supporters barging into the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers Hari Raya open house on the 1st of Hari Raya. Their intention to barge into the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) is still unclear to me. Hindraf, MIC and the whole Malaysian Indian community has made it clear that we want the five Hindraf held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) relased.
With this in mind, I don't see any rational why these group of people, who claim to be the "true Hindraf" barging into the Putra World Trade Centre.
I also saw photographs of a little girl, who is most likely as old as my daughters, being used to submit a teddy bear to the PM. She is the daughter of one of those detained.
This I don't agree. The child will have to bear this physiological scar in later years. We all know that the families of the five years are bearing the consequences of the detention of the five Hindraf leaders. Do we need to drag the child into this and make a spectacle of her.
Apart from the news article, MIC has issued statements on this matter. The party feels that the way these "true Hindraf" supporters behaved, were out of line. Your say please....


KUALA LUMPUR: Sekumpulan penyokong Hindraf menimbulkan kekecohan pada majlis rumah terbuka Aidilfitri anjuran Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dan anggota Kabinet beragama Islam di Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra (PWTC) semalam.
Tanpa mempedulikan peraturan, mereka bertindak mendahului barisan pengunjung lain yang sudahpun beratur untuk memasuki dewan sejak pukul 10 pagi.
Menurut saksi yang melihat tindak-tanduk mereka, kumpulan itu mula memotong barisan orang ramai menjelang tengahari untuk menyerahkan patung beruang dan kad Hari Raya yang mereka dakwa mengandungi 300 tandatangan bagi mendesak pembebasan pemimpin Hindraf yang sedang menjalani tahanan.
Walaupun timbul kekecohan, mereka dibenarkan memasuki dewan atas semangat Hari Raya. Abdullah memberitahu pemberita bahawa kumpulan itu mahu berjumpa beliau secara peribadi tetapi beliau tidak dapat bertemu secara khusus dengan manamana pihak kerana acara itu adalah rumah terbuka Hari Raya.
- mStar

SELAMAT HARI RAYA

LIKE TO WISH ALL MUSLIMS A SELAMAT HARI RAYA. BE SAFE ON THE ROADS. THE HOLIDAYS ARE TO BE ENJOYED WITH LOVED ONES AND NOT SOMETHING WHICH SHOULD BE REMEMBERED FOR SORROWFUL REASONS. BE HAPPY!

The Ampang Jaya Temple Fiasco

Over the last week, a lot had been said about the Ampang Jaya temple demolition by Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya enforcement officials. However, till today nothing concrete has come out from the local council or the Selangor state government apart from statement after statement by these two bodies. State excos are being rhetoric, with one even saying that it was not a temple but just a shrine.
Does that give the right for improper demolition of the said temple? MIC on the other hand has asked for answers. Will the temple be rebuilt? Will it receive any form of compensation? Will the state government apologise for the demolition? etc.
These are some questions which had been left unanswered. Now there is also the question of Hindraf, which incidentially was set up to save guard temples in the country, among others. The deafing silence by Hindraf is also another issue. Why the silence? Is it because the state was run by the Pakatan government? Why are there no forth coming statements? Maybe, Hindraf is busy trying to ensure the release of its five leaders that the temple demolition had taken a backseat.
Even yesterday several thousands Indians were back on the streets of Kuala Lumpur demanding the release of the Hindraf Five. Would it be better to have staged the protest at the site of the temple? Why was not this done? Refer to a Malaysiakini report at http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/90481. Some may not be able to access this, you have to subsribe. I have reproduced it below.
Back to the question of the temple. The Selangor state government should not repeat the mistake done by the former Selangor government, who had in my view, ignored the plea of the Indian community in demolishing temples. That government, especially the then Menteri Besar totally disregarded the views of the community, MIC included. They suffered the backlash at the March general election.
Now Pakatan is going the same way. The MB has not even commented on the issue. Is it because of fear that the government might face backlash from the Malay community for speaking for Hindus?
p/s: Please come up with sensible arguements. This post is not discussing if MIC was effective in stopping demolition of temples. It is aimed at obtaining comments that would safeguard our temples in the future, may it be in BN controlled states or otherwise. It is not about MIC or Samy Vellu bashing. It is about Hindus and the Malaysian Indian community!
p/s: Kavitha of Puchong please check your facts the next time you write. Also please refer to the Hindraf website. They have finally come out with a statement. And for your information even the Pakatan MP who said it was demolished for renovation has even denied saying that. Please try to have an intelligent comment after checking facts. Thanks for dropping by.

ISA detainees' wives: Hindraf has changed

Fauwaz Abdul Aziz | Sep 26, 08 7:53pm

The struggle of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) is different now compared to when it started some 10 months ago under the leadership of the five who are currently under Internal Security Act (ISA) detention, said the wives of two leaders today.
Dr M Kalaivani and B Buvaneswary, the wives of K Kenghadharan and V Ganabatirau, respectively, said they were not comfortable with the direction in which the movement has taken.
Speaking at a press conference in Kelana Jaya, Kalaivani said aside from the goal of obtaining the release of the Hindraf leaders, what is of utmost importance is that the Indian community's problems are alleviated.
Both these goals can be affected without rallies planned by those now coordinating Hindraf activities.
On the contrary, they said the rallies may actually serve to harm the chances of the five's release.
"What I know from my husband, the struggle was different in the beginning and it seems to have taken a different turn at the present moment. I was not involved in Hindraf at all so I cannot comment on what their principles were," said Kalaivani.
"(But) from what we see in the present leadership, we’re not very comfortable with it," she added.
Citing plans by Hindraf to gather 10,000 people at Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Hari Raya open house later next month, she said this would serve as a form of ‘intimidation’ rather than anything else.
Asked if her husband insisted on supporting the movement along such lines in the even he is released, Kalaivani said she would not support him.
"I feel that there are a lot of ways to help the community. You would have to ask my husband, but ... I would not support him if this is how the struggle is going to be.
"I personally feel there is a lot of other ways to continue helping the community, and this we would definitely do.
"If fact, I might even join him to do it together (if he chooses other means of helping the Indian community)," she said.

Samy Vellu's efforts appreciated

During the press conference, the wives also recorded their appreciation for MIC president S Samy Vellu and other quarters who are pushing for the five's release.
Commenting on the statements by certain quarters who questioned the "integrity and sincerity" of Samy Vellu in declaring he had met with Abdullah and sought the release of the Hindraf leaders, Kalaivani said her family’s only wish was to see her husband's return.
"I'm sure it’s the same for the other detainees as well and we sincerely hope that no individuals would continue questioning the integrity of any leaders or individuals from any party or question why they are asking for the release of our husbands.
"We appreciate the efforts taken by anybody to secure the release of our husbands, and we sincerely hope that the prime minister, the Deputy Prime Minister (Najib Abdul Razak) and the Home Minister (Syed Hamid Albar) would seriously consider their release very soon," she said.
source: Malaysiakini.

The "Multiracial" Opposition

The Opposition claim that they represent the multiracial, cross section of the Malaysian society. I did some surfing and managed to get the list of top national office bearers of PKR and DAP. I realised that these two parties, although they claim to represent a multiracial Malaysia, in actual fact do not have a multiracial crowd of leaders, representing the equal proportion or percentage of races in the country. We need not discuss PAS, as the party only believes in one cause -- an Islamic state. Needless to say, their leaders are all Muslim.
I am not being a racist or anything like that, it is just that I am fed-up with the lies and baseless claims of these two parties, namely PKR and DAP. If these two parties want to champion the causes of a multiracial Malaysia, then the national leadership line-up of these two parties should also reflect the proportion of races living in this blessed land.

Here is the breakdown according to race in PKR. It's top national leadership has 30 Malays, 8 Chinese and 5 Indians.
Out of the five Indians in PKR, three are national council members (N.Gobalakrishnan, Irene Fernandez and S. Manikavasagam), one deputy secretary general (Dr Xavier Jayakumar) and one vice-president (R.Sivarasa).

In the DAP, it is just as bad. It's top national leadership has 25 Chinese, 5 Indians and 2 Malays.
The Indians here are chairman (Karpal Singh), vice-chairman (M.Kulasegaran), deputy secretary general (Prof P. Ramasamy), and two committee members (Gobind Singh Deo and P. Gunasekaran).

Some who read this will say that although there are limited number of Indians in these two parties, others, meaning those of other races in the party, will not differentiate among races in fighting for a better Malaysia and that they represent all Malaysians regardless of race and religion.

But if this was the case, why not let the party be equally represented? Why is there a majority of a certain race in the parties i.e Malays in PKR and Chinese in DAP. Where does that leave the Indians?

In both the parties, there is not a single Indian leader who holds a key post. The chairmanship of Karpal in the DAP, as we all know, is just a rubber stamp for decisions made by the secretary general. To further the point, we have yet to see Karpal coming out with concrete proposal or recommendation for the betterment of the Malaysian Indian community.

My advice would be please do not be hoodwinked. We have to remain united not divided in trying address all our problems.

UPDATES: With regret, I wish to state that most comments on the above article have failed to get the point. Either people are blind or myopic in their view of the issue or are defending something they don't even have the slightest knowledge about i.e the system in which these opposition parties operate.
My contention was that while DAP claims to be multiracial it has only five Indian leaders in the top brass. The same goes for PKR. Both parties have also yet to state how they are going to uplift the community if, and that's a big IF they come to power.
If you wish to comment, let it be sensible please. I am not putting up articles for people to say what they like. Get involved in an intelligent argument. But I know for some, that would be difficult.
While it is easy to lump all these leaders together in the Pakatan Rakyat basket, my question is about the individual parties. Anyway as for Pakatan Rakyat, when parties which do not share the same or similar ideology or aim come together and try to grasp power, are they really doing this for the people or do they only want power. And IF they do come to power, what next? What would be their policies on just say an Islamic state. Pas will say Malaysia is an Islamic state while DAP will claim otherwise. They can't even find a common ground.
Then you have the Indian problem. Pas will say save the Malays while the DAP and PKR will say lets plan something for the Indians. Thats only planning, mind you!
That aside, my contention in the above article is, can or would opposition Indians leaders come-up with a proper proposal to uplift Indians. These are the kind of inputs or arguments that I expected from the comments. You can support the opposition, that is not an issue but please give me intelligent comments. Calling people names is not going to help.
CHANGE PEOPLE!

ANWAR'S SEPT 16

Sept 16 came but where is the promised fireworks by Anwar Ibrahim, the de factor leader of Parti Keadilan Rakyat? He promised that today he would takeover the government. Even as off last night the Opposition leader had said he would takeover the government today. But alas, it turned out to be an empty vessel making a lot of noise.
Some people are angry, some consoling, some hopeful that it would really happen. But I personally don't think so. At a press conference today, the leader or so-called leader said he wants to meet the Prime Minister to tell Abdullah that he does not want a curfew imposed and that the transition of power done in an orderly manner. What a load of bull.
He also claims that he has 31 BN MPs under his fold and that more are joining by the hour. Thats a laughable. Just wait another few days then and maybe all 222 MPs would be in PKR since they are joining by the hour! When asked for the list of MPs, Anwar as usual was elusive.
If Anwar had the 31 MPs as he claims, he would have made a big huha over it. He would have organised a march to Istana Negara and another at Putrajaya. He would have asked the King to declare him Prime Minister. He would have virtually stormed into the PM's office or the Parliament. That is Anwar. He strives on controversies.
But this time he has over stepped his boundaries by promising the date he would come to power. That was a mistake. Now his credibility is at stake. The people would have to reevaluate Anwar's credibility all over again!

p/s And Mr OldFart, bye-bye. Please don't waste your time and mine contributing if you don't have anything to contribute. I don't mind losing one person. At least the blog would be cleaner.
For those who don't know what I am talking about, the person using the nick has used foul language etc despite several warnings. I have always published what he had to say even if it was hurtful to others but I guess like Anwar, he had over stepped his boundaries too. Bye-Bye pal!