Indian PM refuses to be drawn into rights issue

 

The Star 

PUTRAJAYA: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made it clear he will not support Malaysian Indians’ claims of discrimination.

Manmohan, who is on a three-day visit to Malaysia, said India would respect the Government’s efforts to tackle problems related to the Indian community.

Manmohan said Malaysia, like India, was a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country and as a democracy, it respected the fundamental human rights of all citizens.

“I am confident that the Malaysian system has the built-in flexibility to tackle any problems of the type mentioned (discrimination).

“I, therefore, have no reason to be apprehensive about the future of the Indian community in this great country,” he told a joint press conference with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak after their bilateral talks at the PM’s office here yesterday.

The leaders also witnessed the signing of an agreement to conclude negotiations of a Malaysia-India free trade agreement, which will be signed by Jan 31 and launched July 1 next year.

The Indian leader was asked by a member of the Indian media if their talks had touched on claims that the Indian community in Malaysia was left out and discriminated against.

The Indian media had questioned the treatment of the Indian community here while the Press Trust of India called on Manmohan to raise “serious human rights violations” during his visit to Malaysia.

Newspapers in the country also highlighted calls by the banned Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) for the Indian prime minister to raise issues concerning the welfare of the ethnic Indian minority here to show a sense of “moral responsibility” towards Malaysian Indians.

Najib, who took the question before Manmohan, said any issue pertaining to the Indian community was a purely domestic matter and the Government was handling it in a positive manner.

“I do not think I have to go into it and it is certainly not a matter that we have discussed between our two countries,” he said.