|
 For
many tourists visiting tropical Southeast Asia,
Malaysia is one of the hottest attractions on their
list of places to see. From luxurious beach resorts
and five star hotels, to shopping malls thronged
with numerous fast food chains such as McDonalds,
KFC, and Starbucks one would think they are back in
the U.S. However, with all its modernity's and
resemblances of a first world nation, it is 50 years
behind in civil rights and racial equality amongst
its minority Indian and Chinese populations.
On November 14, 2007, nearly 30,000 ethnic Tamil
Malaysians of Indian origins staged a peaceful rally
for equal rights in the heart of the capital of
Kuala Lumpur. This was met with tear gas and water
cannons laced with chemicals from the Malaysian
Royal police. Within minutes, what once resembled a
first world democratic country began to look more
like a Burmese crackdown on peaceful demonstrators
which earned the government harsh condemnation from
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Furthermore, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi
threatened to use the Internal Security Act (ISA),
which allows detention without trial.
Under this ISA, hundreds of cases of torture and
even deaths while in custody have been reported.
Many at first glance of Malaysia would not expect
anything like this happening. However, the roots of
this problem go back during British rule with the
Indian Tamils bearing the brunt of the hardships
placed upon them.
Indian Tamils were originally brought to the
peninsula to work in the rubber and oil palm
plantations during the 19th and 20th centuries. From
the 1930s onwards and after the abolition of
indentured servitude, Tamils from India started
taking on other jobs. However, even after the
abolition of indentured servitude, 95% of those
brought from India have continued to undergo hard
working conditions with poor schooling facilities
for their children.
After independence from the Britain in 1957, Malay
was made, the official and national language with
Islam designated as the state religion. Special
rights were
reserved for the Malays or Bumiputras (Sons of the
soil) in areas of employment, quotas for
scholarships and business permits, including the
reservation of designated lands for Malays. Special
loans were given to the Malays to start businesses
which do not have to be repaid in many cases. In
places like the United States affirmative action was
meant to help minority groups to get into schools.
But with Malaysia, it was totally in the reverse
where affirmative action was to benefit the Malay
majority, while marginalizing the Indian Tamil and
Chinese minority.
Regardless of political groups such as the Malaysian
Indian Congress (MIC) which
says it represents the Indian population, racial
discrimination and suppression continued throughout
the years. Sadly, groups such as the MIC have only
served their own interest and as pawns by the ruling
United Malays National Organization (UNMO).
Resentment against discrimination was met with
violent suppression from the Malay government. It
was not till a decade later when the country
witnessed its first anti-Chinese riots of 1969. The
result left 196 people dead with scores wounded.
Since then, Malaysia has continued its emergency
rule.
From the 1970s onwards, police brutality and
religious intolerance have been targeted against
minority groups, particularly against the Indian
Tamil population. A majority of Malaysian Indians
belonging to the Hindu faith have had over 15,000 of
their temples demolished over the past 50 years
which drew concern from the United States Commission
on International Religious Freedom. Furthermore,
Tamil schools have been neglected with literally no
funds set aside for improvement, while roughly 300
Tamil schools are being demolished for development
projects.
Other religions are not exempt from religious
intolerance. Malaysian customs officials have seized
32 Bibles from a traveler which was destined for a
church. Even in church meetings, if Malay is in the
audience, the pastor could be arrested and charged.
In some cases if it is a visiting pastor from
another country his or her passport could be
confiscated by the Malaysian government.
Even Malays are subject to strict Islamic rules
where they cannot convert to another faith. A human
rights group known as SUARAM has exposed this
injustice where one Malay individual who converted
outside of his religion was jailed, tortured and
even humiliated where he was told to strip naked and
to pose imitating the Crucifixion of Christ. The
Becket Fund, a religious rights group, has reported
of a young Malay woman who converted to Christianity
and wanted her religious identification to be
changed on her national ID card. She was later
arrested under Sharia law.
Apart from infringement of freedom of religion is
police brutality. Police brutality is heavily meted
out upon the Indian Tamil population who form 60% of
cases of death by police shootings and death in
police custody when they form less than 10% of the
population. As quoted from the Malaysian Star, "it
has been revealed in the Malaysian Parliament that
from 1989 to 1999, 635 people were shot dead by the
Royal Malaysian Police Force. This works out at 1.3
persons shot dead every week." There have also been
numerous reports from victims and families that
there is an unofficial shoot to kill order by Police
top brass that results in these extra judicial
killings.
It was not till 2007 when a civil rights group known
as the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF)
spearheaded the recent equal rights movement with 18
demands for Malaysian Indians in regards to ending
racial and religious discrimination. As a result of
the recent peace rally flanked with pictures of
former Mahatma Gandhi, five HINDRAF lawyers have
been detained under the Internal Security Act.
Sadly, the present Malaysian government is now
taking advantage of the situation and deeming civil
rights activists standing up for justice as
terrorists.
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