Malaysia’s 100, 000 Sikhs urged to shun the Hindutva elements among the Malaysian Tamils who confronted the Malaysian government on 25 November in Kuala Lampur



Washington, D.C., Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - It is hoped the hundred thousand strong peaceful and prosperous Sikh community in Malaysia will maintain a safe distance, and shun the activities of the uppity Hindu Rights Action Force (a Malaysian ‘child’ of the Neo-Nazi Rashtryia Savak Sangh - RSS - of India) which fascist body has tried to embarrass the Malaysian government with an illegal and noisy, 10, 000 man protest rally in Kuala Lumpur, on 25 November, 2007. An activity intentionally synchronized with the summit meet of the British Commonwealth countries (including Malaysia), which was being held in Uganda, to embarrass the Malaysian government.

The Kuala Lumpur Hindu Tamil protestors - obviously pumped up by slogans of 'India super power', 'India shining', 'Bharat Mata mahan'-  demanded reparations of a ridiculous sum of 4 trillion US Dollars  (US $. 4, 000, 000, 000, 000 or Rs. 160, 000 crore) from the present British government for some deeds of its bygone 19th century imperial predecessor whose officials had imported, into the colony of Malaya, the starving fore- fathers of the present lot of Tamils as indentured labor from their Indian colony. India at that time was recovering from the after effects of the British reign of terror and famine which followed the 1857 Sepoy mutiny also called ‘Gadar’ by some and War of Independence by others..

Most ethnic Tamil Indians in Malaysia are descendants of those indentured laborers who were brought to Malaysia by British colonialists in the 19th century to work in rubber plantations. They now comprise 8 percent (a little over 2 million) of Malaysia's 27 million people, and are at the bottom rung of the society. Ethnic Malays, who are 60 percent of the population of Malaysia, control the government, while ethnic Chinese, who are 25 percent, dominate business and industry. Unlike Tamils, the Malaysian Sikhs, who number about one hundred thousand in Malaysia migrated to Malaya in the late 19th century most of them came as policemen. Their psychohistory is therefore, different from the Malaysian Tamils. The prosperous Sikh community in Malaysia owes its beginnings in the country to the British connection and in particular with the recruitment of Sikhs for the paramilitary and police units which formed the nucleus from which the modern police and military forces of Malaysia are derived. The first of these units was the Perak Sikhs.

The first Sikhs arrived in Malaysia in the 1870s during the Third Larut War. This resulted in the inception of the Sikh Police Force in Taiping, Perak, in 1873. Other than the police force, the Sikhs also played a large role in the transportation industry in the tin-mine states of Perak, Selangor and Negri Sembilan. The chief mode of transportation back then (mostly controlled by the Sikhs) was the bullock cart. Wherever there were Sikhs, a gurdwara was sure to follow. The early Sikh gurdwaras were established in military/police barrack compounds, including the first gurdwara in Malaysia, which was built in 1881 in Fort Cornwallis, Penang. Until the 1950s most of the gurdwaras in Malaysia were simple and functional structures which were made of wood. Gradually the old gurdwaras were demolished to make way for single or double-storey brick buildings, with traditional Sikh architectural elements including gold or yellow domes. Malaysian Gurdwara Council, (a representative body of the Malaysian Sikhs formed in 1988,) Khalsa Dewan Malaysia (established in 1903) and Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia along with others like Global Sikhs, promote religious, cultural, social, education and economical interest of the hundred thousand strong Malaysian Sikh community.

One does not have to be a sage to see that the haughty, offensive and provocative anti-Malaysia tone of recent post-November 25 reports about the Malaysian Tamil organization, Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF)  published in Indian newspapers, (like the sober Chennai-based HINDU newspaper) will result in government retaliation against the Tamil community in Malaysia. The HINDU newspaper of 9 December 2007, for example carries a Kuala Lampur datelined report headlined, “HINDRAF leader urges India to impose trade embargo on Malaysia,” carries some provocative quotes from one Uthayakumar, a human rights lawyer, who is one of the founders of the Hindu Rights Action Force, or HINDRAF. This is the organization which jolted Malaysia’s ruling elite  when it organized an illegal and unprecedented protest rally, by ethnic Malaysian Tamils on Nov. 25. A Malaysian government minister was quoted as saying that, 20,000 thugs and ruffians participated in the November 25 rally, and a court has charged 31 of them with attempted murder for injuring a policeman. One Uthayakumar who is one of the founders of HINDRAF is quoted in the HINDU newspaper as saying that, ‘100,000 people took part in the 25 November rally to highlight 50 years of marginalization and unfair treatment of Tamils by the government. Fifty years of oppression, suppression, racism and permanent colonization of Indians in Malaysia. I think the floodgates just broke.’ Uthayakumar is also quoted as saying that, “India is now an economic powerhouse, and Malaysia would be sensitive to New Delhi's pressure, query and scrutiny.” (> http://www.hinduonnet.com/holnus/000200712091017.htm   <)

The Malaysian government denies that it discriminates against Indians, and has accused HINDRAF leaders of trying to create ethnic trouble. The Malaysian government says the average monthly household income of Indians is about 3,400 ringgit (US$1,000), slightly above the national average of 3,249 ringgit (US$978), and that only about 2.9 percent of Malaysian Indians live below the Poverty line. Malaysia’s annual GDP per capita is US$. 4, 753 eight times higher as compared to India’s US$. 640 GDP per capita, according to the UN Human Development Report 2006.  The Malaysian government is reported in the media of having ordered the investigation of Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) for  possible terrorist and RSS links, and it has threatened to jail Uthayakumar and his colleagues under a law that allows indefinite detention without trial. Uthayakumar has acknowledged that most Indians in India live in far greater poverty than the Malaysian Indians.

Uthayakumar’s brother, one Waytha Moorthy, who is also a leader of HINDRAF, is visiting India where he is quoted as saying that India should realize that it is an economic giant and ‘New Delhi can influence Malaysia as the latter cannot ignore the country's business potential.’ He also suggested that India could impose some kind of trade sanction against Malaysia to pressurize it to provide ethnic Indians their rights. Malaysian Indians (read Tamils) say they are not given opportunities in business, jobs and education, citing an affirmative action program that gives extensive privileges to Malays.

The fascist Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) in Malaysia, it is obvious, has mischievously tried to paint a religious and communal color to Malaysia’s Bumiputera (‘sons of the soil’) policy. A policy instituted in the 1970s, in the wake of Malay-Chinese racial riots that took place there, to protect the backward Malay majority which had suffered economically under British colonial rule. Life for the Tamil Indian minority has not been as easy as it was during British Colonial times. The Malaysians of Indian origin (which included Sikh, Muslim and Tamil Hindu/Muslims) would do well to follow the example of the Chinese and reconcile themselves to a subordinate status in political life. They can instead excel in trade and industry to become indispensable to Malaysia's development, just as the 7 million strong Malaysian Chinese community has done.

The wise conclusion that presents itself is that, the small Sikh community in Malaysia should give a wide berth to the over two million Malaysian Tamils, who have become contaminated with the jingoist Neo-Nazi Hindutva ‘wind’ blowing in from ‘Bharat-mata’, and be chary of associating with the Tamils in any public agitation they may be planning against the Malaysian government.