Watch out! The Indians are angry!

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On May 19, 2009

By Sim Kwang Yang

It seems like the nature of human affairs that persecution is the best engine for growth for some social or political causes.

If the early Christians had not been fed to the lions or slaughtered by the gladiators in the Roman amphitheatres, the religion would perhaps not spread so far and wide in the Roman Empire. Christianity seems to thrive on persecution, beginning with Jesus Christ himself.

Ever since the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) has been outlawed, they have appeared to be divided, and lost for direction. One group has even left to form an Indian political party, a move much regretted by me as unwise and communal, at a time when the national mood is on the swing away from communal and racial politics.

When the last three of the Hindraf leaders were released from ISA detention, I was happy for them and Hindraf. I was happier even when P Uthayakumar refused to sign any paper that set the conditions for his release. He also did not thank the PM or the government. Why should he do either, when his ISA detention was grossly unjust in the first place? The man has guts, and I admire him.

And then, for some strange reasons, the government want him back in Kamuntin, an order that Uthayakumar has refused to obey. Like RPK, he has another creative display of peaceful civil disobedience. As Martin Luther King and Ghandi have taught us, the best way to fight unjust laws is to disobey them, without violence.

Then, Malaysiakini has this to report: “Revoke order or it’s war!”

P Uthayakumar’s brother, London based Waythamoorthy, called on the authorities to revoke the order with immediate effect, failing which the movement would declare ‘war’ on Najib’s government

According to Malaysiakini, “Following the appointment of Najib as the country’s sixth premier in April, Hindraf – which has been outlawed – called for a 100-day ceasefire which would end in mid-July.”

‘Two weeks ago, Waythamoorthy proposed a dialogue session with Najib’s administration to resolve pertaining issues in connection with Hindraf’s struggle for the betterment of the much marginalised Hindu community in the country.”

‘Waythamoorthy however, now warned that Hindraf was prepared to revoke its 100-day truce and organise mass street protests if the threat to re-arrest Uthayakumar was for real.”