.02The RCI can also be expected to ask why a population of 7 per cent is responsible for more than 60 per cent of the violent crimes in the country.
FMT
KUALA LUMPUR: Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, the ad hoc apolitical human rights movement working across the political divide, has called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the plight of the “underclass” Indians in the country who have been left in the twilight zone by independence and fragmentation of estates.
The underclass, according to Hindraf chairman P. Waythamoorthy, is made up of at least 800,000 displaced estate workers and 300,000 stateless people. Earlier figures cited were as high as 850,000 and 350,000 people respectively.
Statelessness keeps the people affected as a readily-available domestic pool of slave labour who don’t figure in official records.
“Only an RCI can establish the tragic reality behind these figures and the plight that has led to marginalization,” said Waytha in revisiting his exit from the Federal Government last year, after a brief few months, over a 5-year RM4.5 billion Hindraf-Barisan Nasional (BN) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on underclass Indians.
Waytha, at that time, had blamed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for the failure of the MOU to take off. It was used by Najib to slash Indian support for the Opposition in 2013 to 55 per cent, down from the 85 per cent in 2008. “The Government has been in complete breach on the MOU and only a RCI can help rectify this,” he said. “The RCI’s recommendations should be incorporated in the 11th Malaysia Plan.”
The emphasis in the MOU was on making land available for agricultural pursuits, training opportunities for the acquisition of marketable skills, scholarships, recognition of degrees of universities abroad which Indian students attend, and personal documents under Article 30 of the Federal Constitution.
The RCI can also be expected to ask why a population of 7 per cent is responsible for more than 60 per cent of the violent crimes in the country and leading to many deaths in police custody.
Waytha expressed regret that with Hindraf out of the Government, the BN has gone back to its old ways of dishing out crumbs to Indian-based political parties, within and outside the ruling coalition, to keep Indian voters away from the Opposition, if there’s resistance against supporting it.
The Government, he pleaded, had obligations, responsibilities and duties towards all citizens and urged that it adopt a needs-based approach instead of playing to the gallery on race and religion in the hope of remaining in power for as long as possible. “It’s not the done thing to live in a state of denial on the plight of a large number of people in the country and only pay lip service every General Election.”
The Government, he reiterated, was barking up the wrong tree by continuing to place its hopes on the discredited leaders of Indian-based political parties, within and outside the ruling coalition. “This approach has been tried since independence in 1957 and has not worked. It’s no use throwing good money after bad or down a bottomless pit.”
FMT
KUALA LUMPUR: Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, the ad hoc apolitical human rights movement working across the political divide, has called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the plight of the “underclass” Indians in the country who have been left in the twilight zone by independence and fragmentation of estates.
The underclass, according to Hindraf chairman P. Waythamoorthy, is made up of at least 800,000 displaced estate workers and 300,000 stateless people. Earlier figures cited were as high as 850,000 and 350,000 people respectively.
Statelessness keeps the people affected as a readily-available domestic pool of slave labour who don’t figure in official records.
“Only an RCI can establish the tragic reality behind these figures and the plight that has led to marginalization,” said Waytha in revisiting his exit from the Federal Government last year, after a brief few months, over a 5-year RM4.5 billion Hindraf-Barisan Nasional (BN) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on underclass Indians.
Waytha, at that time, had blamed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for the failure of the MOU to take off. It was used by Najib to slash Indian support for the Opposition in 2013 to 55 per cent, down from the 85 per cent in 2008. “The Government has been in complete breach on the MOU and only a RCI can help rectify this,” he said. “The RCI’s recommendations should be incorporated in the 11th Malaysia Plan.”
The emphasis in the MOU was on making land available for agricultural pursuits, training opportunities for the acquisition of marketable skills, scholarships, recognition of degrees of universities abroad which Indian students attend, and personal documents under Article 30 of the Federal Constitution.
The RCI can also be expected to ask why a population of 7 per cent is responsible for more than 60 per cent of the violent crimes in the country and leading to many deaths in police custody.
Waytha expressed regret that with Hindraf out of the Government, the BN has gone back to its old ways of dishing out crumbs to Indian-based political parties, within and outside the ruling coalition, to keep Indian voters away from the Opposition, if there’s resistance against supporting it.
The Government, he pleaded, had obligations, responsibilities and duties towards all citizens and urged that it adopt a needs-based approach instead of playing to the gallery on race and religion in the hope of remaining in power for as long as possible. “It’s not the done thing to live in a state of denial on the plight of a large number of people in the country and only pay lip service every General Election.”
The Government, he reiterated, was barking up the wrong tree by continuing to place its hopes on the discredited leaders of Indian-based political parties, within and outside the ruling coalition. “This approach has been tried since independence in 1957 and has not worked. It’s no use throwing good money after bad or down a bottomless pit.”
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