MALAYSIAN FIRST OR INDIAN FIRST? Like Umno, Hindraf too must leave their time warp

Perhaps the spark that triggered the onslaught of the political tsunami suffered by Barisan Nasional (BN) in the 12^th GE in March 2008 can be attributed to a little known organisation at that time called Hindraf (or the Hindu Rights Action Force). It certainly created international attention to be riveted on Malaysia in late 2007 by staging an open protest or demonstration.

Hindraf’s bizarre and brazen attempt to highlight the plight of the Indian or mainly Tamil-Hindu community in the country sparked off and triggered a series of other calls by various other organizations denouncing the heinous BN as an evil outfit that was responsible for a host of wrongdoings in Malaysia. It worked to cut BN down to size.

But Hindraf went further than the others by sparking outrage by claiming that Indians in the country were being subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing and that this was being systematically executed by the BN government.

While to this day the claims by this group have yet to be proven and clearly substantiated, Hindraf appears by itself to be shaped and patterned after the Bal Thackeray-led Shiv Sena organization based in Mumbai, India.

The Shiv Sena are protectors and champions of the custodial rights of Hindus in India and are believed to be behind the chaos and catastrophes that have befallen groups of other faiths such as the Muslims and Christians and they are an extremist religious organization.

Besides this, it was once reported in an interview with a Hindraf leader from across the Causeway in Singapore, that Hindraf actually had contacts and links with the Tamil Tigers who were back then spearheading a guerrilla war in Sri Lanka for the liberation of Jaffna as home of the Tamil community.

By aligning themselves with the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka and by seemingly trying to style themselves after the Shiv Sena group in India, Hindraf led by the legal brothers of P. Wayathamoorthy and P. Uthayakumar beggared belief by their wild and histrionic behavior to capture not only the attention of locals but the international community at large.

Brothers-at-law that are up in arms

Prior to surfacing to hog the limelight, the brothers Waythamoorthy and Uthayakumar were already in the bad books of the authorities by making wild and largely baseless accusations that began to stir and simmer and come to the notice of Malaysians.

By going further to register themselves as a society going by the name of Hindraf, the brothers-at-law or legal eagles poised themselves in the minds of right-thinking members of the Malaysian general public as nothing more than just a bunch of Indian idiots.

Hindraf exploded on the stage with their demonstration in late 2007 that sent shock ripples throughout the country and the aftershock was when they initiated a class-action suit against the British government suing for billions of pounds sterling in what they hoped can be compensation for Malaysian Indians whom they allege to be marginalized in this country.

In their statement of claim filed in a British court of law, Hindraf stated that it was the British who are to be held responsible for the plight of the Indian community in this country at present as they had brought Indians from South India as indentured laborers to work on the rubber plantations and have since abandoned their responsibility.

The suit by Hindraf was for just compensation, or was it merely a far-fetched bid by the group to stage a drama so as to gain and focus the attention of the world and Malaysians on how far behind most Indians in this country was lagging?

While the motives of the group till today are unclear and has yet to be ascertained or determined, what is certain and sure is that the aim of Hindraf to seek attention to their cause by creating trouble and by being a menace to Malaysian society till today by lacking civil and diplomatic skills in highlighting their demands to the BN government has begun to backfire.

Unethical ways and means used by Hindraf

Hindraf is an organization who has come to be known for the use of force and thug behavior within the Indian community to get their goals realized while trying to blackmail political parties into trying to get their demands accomplished.

It is amazing that the brothers Waythamoorthy and Uthayakumar can be allowed so much room to stage their theatrics, and for the former to chair over Hindraf from exile in London for a spell, and for the latter to still be going great guns despite also being detained for a spell under the now defunct Internal Security Act.

While the political scenario has changed dramatically since the last general election, Hindraf has seized the opportunity from the ensuing confusion to wreak havoc on Malaysia’s system of political governance and to mock and belittle political leaders in the hope of gaining prominence.

These kinds of underhanded tactics by basically an almost militant and thoroughly aggressive group goes counter to the grain and thinking and ways of being of Malaysians as a whole who tend to dislike and disdain any form of violent, forceful behavior.

Much to the dismay of the Indian community, Hindraf has caused the other races to view Indians as trouble creators and mischief makers who are planning to usurp the process of law and order and cause absolute mayhem, bedlam and anarchy in the process.

Hindraf has aggravated and inflamed race relations

Since it catapulted to the forefront, Hindraf has been staging a theatre of dreams and fantasies for Indians to escape from the hard, harsh realities of their suffering and sorrow, of their general backwardness in every sector of the country.

Hindraf has worked on the sentiments of the Hindu pride of the Tamil community to stir them to feel that they have been placed into basket cases and that there is no future for them unless they indulge in aggressive and arm-twisting methods to get the government to cave-in to their demands.

While in certain ways it has worked, with the Badawi and Najib administrations granting concessions and giving in to their demands, the ways and means used by Hindraf to go about achieving it is really questionable and most definitely distasteful and not in keeping with the democratic ways of the nation.

Hindraf, led by the brothers, Wayathamoorthy and Uthayakumar have stooped low. They have degraded and brought disrespect to the Indian community and have caused non-Indians to cast aspersions and doubts on Indians and aggravated and inflamed race relations to a new and dangerous level.

The reaction and response by the other races

By flexing their muscles in waging their demands for the Indian community, Hindraf has caused the other two major races in the country, the Malays and Chinese, to shy away from the tactics and methods that they use and to distance themselves from Indians and the cause they are fighting.

If Indians are in a dismal shape as a community, it is not the government but the community itself in lacking leaders of worth and credibility to steer them from the backwaters and lead them to the forefront of nation building.

If Indians are lacking and lagging behind now, it is because they have been lulled into a time warp and have not taken fact of the vast, sweeping changes that have taken place in this country and to keep pace with the other races.

By now hoping for Hindraf to put pressure on the BN government to try and pull the community and place it back on the fast track to progress and prosperity, Indians are dicing with the possibility of wrecking the peace and stability of the nation.

Issues affecting the Indian community need to be handled in a tactful, sensitive and diplomatic manner, which despite the legal counsels that helm Hindraf should be capable of, are most definitely lacking in such soft skills that are right now needed to placate and enhance race relations in the country among the major races.

Indians need to come together in a show of sincere unity and foster better relations with the other major races and the government and political parties so as to be able to get the support and assistance they badly lack from those who are capable of assisting them.

If, however, if the Indian community wants to put their faith and confidence in an extremist and chauvinistic Hindu organization, they will only have themselves to be blamed.

Indians in Malaysia, just as their Chinese, Kadazan-Dusun-Murut or Dayak counter-parts, must be firm and committed in joining the growing majority of Malaysians, who in a globalized era have developed a strong dislike for race baiting and racial polarization.

Malaysia Chronicle