K. Selvam, K. Mohan, C.F Mani and Mano handed over the letter this morning to the Australian High Commission today to be forwarded to the Third Secretary Mr. Michael Helleman for his onward transmission to The Honorable Julia Gillard MP, Prime Minister of Australia.
No.6, Jalan Abdullah, Off Jalan Bangsar, 59000 Kuala Lumpur. Tel : 03-2282 5241
Fax : 03-2282 5241 Fax: 03-2282 5245
Website: www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com E-mail: info@humanrightspartymalaysia.com
Date : 29th October 2010
The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Prime Minister of Australia
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives Fax: (02) 6273 4100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Re : Your official visit to Malaysia on 31st October and 1st November 2010
Dear Prime Minister Gillard,
We of the Human Rights Party Malaysia welcome you to our country for your first official visit as the Prime Minster of Australia. We are a political party representing the marginalized Indian community here in Malaysia whose main political thrust is to create a society based on the fundamental values of democracy – of equality of rights and of equality of opportunties and to reinstate Malaysian Indians into the national mainstream of development while eliminating policies of racism and religious supremacy.
Malaysia is essentially a multiethnic and multicultural society, in many ways like Australia. As matters stand today, Malaysia is struggling with the challenge of building a cohesive multicultural society in spite of 53 years of independence. I may even be presumptuous, calling Malaysia multicultural for many in the political leadership may challenge this premise. But this reality cannot be ignored – we are a multicultural society. But one which is in the process of finding itself . The challenges are of creating robust social cohesion in the face of deep diversity. One unfortunate consequence of this is the signifcant violation of human rights of the minorities of the country, specifically of the Indians, A direct result of this gross violation is the marginalization of the indian poor in the country.. It is our party’s objective to eliminate this problem of marginalization at its root. And it is in this regard we write this letter to you.
Autsralia seems to have learnt some lessons and has gone down a path that has avoided the divisions that is pulling the multiethnic community apart here in Malaysia. Autsralia has developed some policies that has helped establish cohesiveness of the communities based on shared fundamental values while allowing for cultural diversity. The policy framework that enables you to capture multicultural claims as demands for more inclusion, rather than as tendencies for the fragmentation of the polity into a set of mutually antipathetic communities, surely is relevant and valuable to Malaysia.
At the risk of being presumptuous, I request you, during your visit to Malaysia, to raise the issues of violation of the rights of the marginalized minority Indians and relate it to the broader issue of managing a multiethnic and multicultural country to your counterpart, Dato Seri Najib Abdul Razak, our Prime Minister, and to offer suggestions of how it may be dealt with based on the experience of Australia. We understand however that the request we make is an unsual one. Australia has shown leadership on many issue relating to human rights both in the Australasian region as well as in the Asean region in the past and this is just such an opportunity. This will be a necessary contribution to a very high potential neighbour. Having robust neighbours contributes to stability, to growing opportunities and prosperity for all in the community.
A more specific request we would like to make to you is that a small delegation from our party would like to meet with you during your visit to Malaysia. We would like to hand you a proposal seeking your assistance in setting up a scholarship program for high performing but disadvantaged Indian students in Malaysia who have been denied opportunties here into local Universities because of the discriminatory admission policies of the Government of Malaysia.to attend universities in Australia. We will appreciate it if you could grant us this appointment with your good self. This will be a novel initiative in extending such programs beyond Government to Gevernment arrangements, to peoples in need in neighbouring countries directly.We can be contacted through your Kuala Lumpur embassy for the scheduling of the meeting.
Once again we welcome you to Malaysia and we thank you for the opportunity to be able to write to you, and we look forward to your favourable response.
Thank You,
Yours Faithfully,
W. Sambulingam
President (pro tem)
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