I make this call again to the Prime Minister to place a moratorium on actions against Displaced Estate Workers till a just and win-win solution can be worked out.Yesterday Madam Kalyani,60, one of the displaced estate workers involved in the standoff between Sime Darby Development and 25 families passed away due to the stress and trauma caused by that standoff.
Sime Darby development, the owner and development arm of the former employer and a Government linked company attempted the demolition and eviction from her home of several decades. The standoff lasted several hours between the 25 families and the Sime Darby Development.The planned demolition was to clear the houses of the 25 families of the former estate workers and the temple in their community for property development that would yield hundreds of millions of ringgist in revenue and profits for Sime Darby.
Forcing eviction, forced removal by demolitions are not the substance of good governance. Governance is for all the people – not just the propertied ones. Everywhere, these actions are taken on behalf of the propertied against the most vulnerable. Development, progress and peace should be for all and balanced not just for the propertied with collusion from the various arms of the Government.
Here are some salient points about this episode. These evictions have heavy human costs – in some cases causing even deaths, as in Madam Kalyani’s casehere or in Mr Murugan’s case in Kampung Buah Pala. This is a nationwide phenomenon. You hear them sporadically, but they have occurred and continue to occur all over the country and have been going on for well over 40 years. And it largely relates to former Indian plantation workers. This is no coincidence. This is the result of the totally unbalanced development policies of the Government over this period. Unknowing and ignorant politicians and vested interests ask, why is the problem always with these Indians. When the Indian plantation worker loses his job, he does not only lose his job, he loses everything – he loses his home, his temple, his school, his neighbours, his social system - his life is torn asunder. And as they are thrown out in many cases they are fed a pittance and cleared.
It is with a keen understanding of these problems and with an attitude of enough is enough that Hindraf came out with the Blueprint which is a set of comprehensive and permanent solutions to these endemic problems and took the bold decision to participate in Government to create the necessary understanding, empathy and political will to solve this problem. It is obvious after 3 months into the decision that it will take a while more before these plans in the Blueprint are operationalized.
In the meantime we just cannot continue with these mindless and symptom focussed, unsustainable and costly actions. The human costs of these problems to the nation manifest in many ways – deaths like Madam Kalyani and Mr Murugan and in the wanton police shootings, the increasing anger among the affected estate worker community in specific and in the populace in general, intensifying hatred of authority, increasing polarization of the different ethnic groups because of the ethnic dimensions of the problems are some of these human costs.
Our calls to stop these actions will go on in the public domain as well as within those closed doors of Government with increasing pitch till the causes for these problems are effectively addressed and the problem resolved in a permanent and comprehensive manner.
N Ganesan
Hindraf National Advisor
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