Uthaya: Hindraf's motto is rights, not mercy

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward." - Martin Luther King Jr.


INTERVIEW The following is the last of a three-part interview with Human Rights Party leader P Uthayakumar. The first and second parts are here and here.

Ownership of land is perhaps the biggest issue when it comes to the marginalised section of the Indian community. Could you describe the inequalities that Hindraf has discovered that continues to be perpetuated when it comes to this issue?

Malaysia is a huge 329,758 square kilometers with tens of thousands of poor Malay, Kadazan, Iban, and Orang Asli villages with customary land as their social safety net.
Even the Chinese poor have 508 Chinese new villages nationwide. However, there are no more of the hundreds of Indian villages and Indian settlements. Their social safety net is non-existent because they have been denied land titles.

Kg Muniandy, Kg Ghandi, Kg Ratnapillai and Kg Ramasamy which are left are being wiped out or have been deemed as squatters and are slated to be systematically demolished in a matter of time. Now is Pakatan Rakyat undoing these Umno injustices? The answer is obviously a big ‘no'.

In addition to these villages, the Umno government has granted some 1,121,346 poor Malays and to a far lesser extent the Orang Asli, Kadazan and Iban the 10-acre land ownership schemes in Felda, Felcra, Risda, Fama, Agropolitan, Kesedar, Ketengah, instantly bringing them out of poverty.

For show and that too only in the 1950s and early 1960s, some token 0.1 percent or so Indians (and that too for Malaysia to qualify for the World Bank loans) had been granted land and that too only restricted to the Felda scheme.

Even the pre-existing Indian poor plantation workers of the Merdeka era have been segregated and excluded from these land schemes. Today we no longer hear about the then 40 percent Malay and Chinese daily paid rubber tappers.

However, we still have Indian poor rubber tappers and plantation workers earning as low as RM13 daily. They are excluded from the hundreds of thousands of self-employed entrepreneurial opportunities offered by the tens of billions of ringgit budget allocated to the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry and Rural and Regional Development Ministry.

As displaced plantation workers, most of them end up as casual and unskilled factory workers, general workers, toilet cleaners, garbage collectors, Alam Flora workers, lorry drivers, security guards, office boys, dish washers, etc, earning as low as RM20 per day contract workers, on par if not lower than the foreign workers.

It appears that the Indian poor are only wanted for the 3D jobs - dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs - but never the self-employed, small entrepreneurs or petty trading jobs, and provided the opportunities that have been made available to the poor Malays by the Umno government policies and the Chinese with their community support.

After 55 years of independence nearly all the 523 Tamil schools still remain in dilapidated and near cow-shed conditions in steel shipping containers, upstairs in a shop house, in basements, because they are denied government land titles, unlike other Malay schools.

Similarly, almost all the thousands of Hindu temples and Hindu crematoriums unlike any other mosque, surau or Muslim cemetery are denied land titles by the Umno and Pakatan state governments. Because most of them are sitting on prime land, Umno, and Pakatan only see the ringgit sign when they see these last vestiges of the vulnerable and easily bullied Indian basic social institutions.

Within months of coming to power in Perak and Selangor, Pakatan granted land titles to 110,000 Malays in Rancangan Kampong Tersusun, 102,000 Chinese new villagers granted land titles (Utusan Malaysia, April 5, 2008), nine Perak Chinese Independent schools granted 2,500 acres of land (New Straits Times, Aug 31, 2008), 10 acres each to Perak Orang Asli, etc. Moreover, even RM1 million and 1,700 acres of land for pig farming in Sepang (New Straits Times, April 11, 2008).

However, almost zero land for the Indian poor. At the first (and last) meeting Hindraf had with the top PAS leadership at the PAS headquarters early this year, the ex-Perak menteri besar Nizar Jamaluddin (right) had no answer to this. Wonder, why?

Ninety percent, or 282 acres out of the 316 acres of land approved for the non-Muslim places of worship in Selangor was granted to the Chinese community when they have not asked for it. Only 6 percent, or 19 acres, were granted for the thousands of Indian poor Hindu temples in Selangor. (New Straits Times, May 31, 2011)

In any event, the rich Chinese business community can afford to buy the same. Going by the needs basis, which Pakatan says it practices, the Hindu temples that have a history of one Hindu temple being demolished in every 10 days in Selangor in 2007 under the Umno regime are obviously more deserving. So where is the much-touted ‘Ubah'?

The fact remains that there are zero provisions in Pakatan's Buku Jingga to undo these Umno institutional racism and injustices victimising the Indian poor. Why? To continue the racist Umno tradition when they get to Putrajaya?

What do you hope to achieve by standing for election and why take on a Pakatan candidate? Would not a BN candidate be more appropriate as conventional partisan wisdom goes?

Hindraf has named me as the candidate for the Kota Raja parliament and DUN Sri Andalas constituencies for the simple reason that Kota Raja has the highest number of Indian voters in Malaysia. For obvious reasons, this would be our best bet. Why can't Pakatan make way for us here for a one-to-one contest with Umno-BN?

Why the greed in denying even in this one seat to Hindraf when there are 222 parliamentary and 576 DUN seats nationwide? Even now, we are prepared not to contest at all if Pakatan delivers at least even one of the Hindraf 18-point demand, for example land titles ‘all in one go' for all Tamil schools, Hindu temples and crematoriums and Indian villages in the Pakatan states.

Why not? After all, Pakatan is multi-racial, or so we are told!

If you could debate any Malaysian public official, who would you debate and what would the topic be?

I would like a debate with the prime minister and the shadow prime minister as only they can deliver on the Hindraf 18-point demand. Then let the Indian poor decide on whom to vote. The debate topic proposed would be ‘Are the Malaysian Indian poor the most vulnerable victims in the world's most racist country'.

Will you meet PM Najib and if so why?

No, because it has been a long five years and three months since the Hindraf 18-point demand, dated Aug 12, 2012, was put forward to the Umno prime minister.

Except for some temporary, piecemeal handouts, there has been almost zero delivery. Hindraf has asked for the delivery of at least five of the 18 demands on or before Nov 1, 2013 as a pre-condition so that we can meet the prime minister to discuss the delivery of the remaining Hindraf 18-point demand.

We have waited for 55 long years and have no more patience to start discussions afresh, for paper pushing studies to be done, blueprint, white paper, political games or gimmicks for that matter. Hindraf gets to the point - delivery to the Indian poor. Moreover, we are serious be it Umno or Pakatan.

Some 1,016,799 Biro Tatanegara government staff has thus far been trained to implement these racist Umno government policies at all levels.

Hindraf and the Human Rights Party are now two separate entities. What was the reasoning behind the move?

Because Pakatan also refused to deliver on the Hindraf 18-point demand in the Pakatan-ruled states after GE13, Hindraf formed the Human Rights Party as the political wing of Hindraf with the view to stand on its own feet politically. Otherwise, Hindraf is HRP and HRP is Hindraf. We are the same entity.

There have been vitriolic objections to the ‘quota' demands of Hindraf/Human Rights Party. What is your rational for these demands?
No, Hindraf has never demanded quotas. As aforementioned, Hindraf has always demanded equal rights, equal opportunities and equal upward mobility opportunities for the Indian poor on a needs basis.

What are your views on government handouts for Tamil schools and Hindu temples at the expense of the marginalised Indian poor?

Giving handouts to Tamil schools and Hindu temples is just wayang kulit ‘delivery' to the Indian poor by Umno and Pakatan. It is a very cheap shot.

We are no Tamil Nadu or Bangladesh. Prosperous Malaysia has the world's tallest Twin Tower. Especially in the era when Barack Obama has already become president for a second term in the United States, this is a national if not international shame.

Do you think that affirmative action programmes, which have been disastrous to the Malay community, will cultivate a culture of entitlement in the Indian community?

No, I beg to differ. The Umno affirmative action policies (read: racist policies) being disastrous to the Malay community is a very shrewd Umno political strategy to continue with their racist agenda with impunity.

The Umno affirmative action policies have taken almost all the poor Malays out of the clutches of poverty, created tens of thousands of successful Malay entrepreneurs, graduates, professionals, businessmen, banks, GLCs (government-linked companies), millionaires and billionaires within a short span of a mere 20 odd years.

What cultural traits of the Chinese community do you think are worth emulating in the Indian community?

The Chinese work hard. They may work smarter and have the benefit of their Chinese networks, rich clans, business associations and banks. They have been very successful.

Having had a head start beginning as the earliest business people and suppliers to the British and gradually controlling some 60 percent of the country's economy. The Chinese have emerged a successful self-sustaining business, banking, corporate and development community.

Umno and Pakatan need this Chinese community to prosper the Malays in what we call the bi-racial 1Malay-sia, but of course segregating the Indian poor.

Like the Chinese, the Indians are also hardworking, many even taking up two jobs, working double shifts even up to seven days a week. They have never asked anything free.

All they ask for is for an end to all Umno and Pakatan government institutionalised, state-sponsored and private sector racist policies that have reduced the Indian poor to the vicious stereotype of the ‘Negros' of Malaysia. Visit www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com for the truth.

Post-2008, how successful do you think Hindraf has been in creating awareness in the plight of a certain section of the marginalised Indian community? As the very public face of Hindraf, do you think that the movement has lost its way?

Almost on a daily basis, we get Hindraf supporters calling and complimenting us on Hindraf having created awareness on the Indian poor rights. Almost on a daily basis, the five Tamil dailies and the other media to a lesser extent carry news reports on some protest or other against the Umno and Pakatan governments.

As the de facto leader of Hindraf, my only hope forward is the realisation of Indian majority seats as aforementioned for a voice at the highest political level - the Parliament. Otherwise we will continue being at the mercy of Umno and Pakatan. Incidentally, the Hindraf motto is rights, not mercy.

Writer's epilogue

What troubles me the most is when Pakatan partisans libel Uthayakumar as a turncoat Umno stooge or worse, a racist agent provocateur. Here is a man who is sacrificing everything to confront a system that has divided along racial lines.

The fact that we in Pakatan continue to play our race cards and do so behind a multiracial/cultural veil, points more to our failings than his.
While Pakatan apparatchiks continue to whinge that Uthayakumar is "racist" all the while PKR and PAS is reassuring a divided Malay community that they will benefit the most from this so-called need-based affirmative action programme and the supposedly "multiracial" DAP continue to joust with the MCA over the Chinese vote, Hindraf hopefully will continue pursuing its agenda which is far more inclusive that the crypo racists within Pakatan would have you believe.

Understand now, that I disagree (and I have told Uthayakumar) with many of his ideas but the reality he and Hindraf shine a light on, is far too devastating to ignore merely because one disagrees with some of the polemics of the messenger.
Perhaps in another piece, I will elaborate on how Pakatan's "multiculturalism" has become the new fascism propagated by DAP kool-aid drinkers and how this could be the fault line that finally swings the Malay vote back to Umno.

In the end if we (and by we, I mean Pakatan) win this election and the marginalised Indian poor are overlooked for a variety of reasons, those poor unfortunate souls can rest assured, that Uthayakumar, will never forget them, and will never stop fighting for them, no matter who the opponent is.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Hindraf will be celebrating the fifth anniversary of its historic 2007 rally tomorrow.