On this third day of my Hunger Viratham, I have begun limiting my physical movement so I can conserve the energy for what lies ahead.
The Viratham feeds me with spiritual strength that no food can substitute. That is the nourishment I truly need, and this period of Viratham is going to be a creative period.
Yesterday, in Part 1, I addressed the immediate plans for the way forward for the minority Indian poor. Today, I wish to discuss why I think the political class wants to kill off Hindraf's five-year blueprint to bring the Indian poor into the mainstream of national development.
Before I get into discussing the whys of this question, I need to put it clearly that politicians on both sides of the divide do indeed want to kill off the Hindraf blueprint.
Umno's first approach has been to completely ignore that any such initiative exists. This is the typical first response. They have not responded to our overtures to them for a discussion on the blueprint for a good six months now.
The next approach (and we are beginning to see traces of that) is to hijack portions of our blueprint, and maybe also the tone of the blueprint and hope to render this Hindraf document redundant in the process.
The Viratham feeds me with spiritual strength that no food can substitute. That is the nourishment I truly need, and this period of Viratham is going to be a creative period.
Yesterday, in Part 1, I addressed the immediate plans for the way forward for the minority Indian poor. Today, I wish to discuss why I think the political class wants to kill off Hindraf's five-year blueprint to bring the Indian poor into the mainstream of national development.
Before I get into discussing the whys of this question, I need to put it clearly that politicians on both sides of the divide do indeed want to kill off the Hindraf blueprint.Umno's first approach has been to completely ignore that any such initiative exists. This is the typical first response. They have not responded to our overtures to them for a discussion on the blueprint for a good six months now.
The next approach (and we are beginning to see traces of that) is to hijack portions of our blueprint, and maybe also the tone of the blueprint and hope to render this Hindraf document redundant in the process.
The BN's pretence
The proof will be in the BN election manifesto, when it comes out. Umno-BN are hoping to skirt the issue altogether for now and hope to sail through these elections and then, in the post-election period, hope for a natural death to the document. Their pretending is their biggest initiative to kill off the Hindraf Blueprint.
As for Pakatan Rakyat, the situation is a little bit more complex as we have been in discussions with them these last six months.
First, when the discussions started, we were given verbal agreements by the very top and they hoped we would accept that as sufficient commitment until they take over Putrajaya. But when we insisted on a binding endorsement, their gears began to shift.
Delay tactics by engaging us in meeting after wasted meeting to drag this process on for as long as possible to minimise any impact of a breakdown in our talks was attempted. But that did not work either.
If they could not kill the document, then kill the messenger was what they tried next. So they began to hit at our moral grounds, by insinuating that we were only interested in seats to contest in the elections, attempting to make us out as greedy, cheating politicians.
Pakatan tries to make us look like wolves in sheepskin. It did not have much more to go on, on that count, for we made it clear that our priority is the blueprint. But it persisted with this approach.
The proof will be in the BN election manifesto, when it comes out. Umno-BN are hoping to skirt the issue altogether for now and hope to sail through these elections and then, in the post-election period, hope for a natural death to the document. Their pretending is their biggest initiative to kill off the Hindraf Blueprint.
As for Pakatan Rakyat, the situation is a little bit more complex as we have been in discussions with them these last six months.
First, when the discussions started, we were given verbal agreements by the very top and they hoped we would accept that as sufficient commitment until they take over Putrajaya. But when we insisted on a binding endorsement, their gears began to shift.
Delay tactics by engaging us in meeting after wasted meeting to drag this process on for as long as possible to minimise any impact of a breakdown in our talks was attempted. But that did not work either.If they could not kill the document, then kill the messenger was what they tried next. So they began to hit at our moral grounds, by insinuating that we were only interested in seats to contest in the elections, attempting to make us out as greedy, cheating politicians.
Pakatan tries to make us look like wolves in sheepskin. It did not have much more to go on, on that count, for we made it clear that our priority is the blueprint. But it persisted with this approach.
Backlash from the Indians
The next thing Pakatan tried was using argument that the blueprint demands were inconsistent with that sacrosanct Pakatan principle of "beyond racial boundaries".
It backtracked on that, too, because of the backlash from the Indian community. Pakatan then resorted to hijacking a clear portion of the Hindraf Blueprint for inclusion in its election manifesto to get by the backlash.
Now, the latest attempt has been to cleverly use the Indian leaders within their coalition to hit out at us - to further divide and rule, something that has been practised by Umno all these years.
There probably will be more attempts at this, for Pakatan has not succeeded in killing off the blueprint.
Now let me get to why both parties are so earnest about achieving this goal of destroying Hindraf and our blueprint.
Our theory is that both BN and Pakatan are just puppets. The real power lies with the puppet masters at the back. The puppet masters are the political and economic elite of the country. They are the people who own this country - all the major assets of the country are owned by them.
They call the policy shots as far as the allocation of the resources of the country is concerned and they use various devices, methods and processes to achieve this. BN or Pakatan, they are just tools to create an illusion.
Of course what I say is advanced political theory. But hold these thoughts and ruminate over them. This is a central theme all common people must become well aware of. This is central to our understanding of how things work in our universe.
It backtracked on that, too, because of the backlash from the Indian community. Pakatan then resorted to hijacking a clear portion of the Hindraf Blueprint for inclusion in its election manifesto to get by the backlash.
Now, the latest attempt has been to cleverly use the Indian leaders within their coalition to hit out at us - to further divide and rule, something that has been practised by Umno all these years.
There probably will be more attempts at this, for Pakatan has not succeeded in killing off the blueprint.
Now let me get to why both parties are so earnest about achieving this goal of destroying Hindraf and our blueprint.
Our theory is that both BN and Pakatan are just puppets. The real power lies with the puppet masters at the back. The puppet masters are the political and economic elite of the country. They are the people who own this country - all the major assets of the country are owned by them.They call the policy shots as far as the allocation of the resources of the country is concerned and they use various devices, methods and processes to achieve this. BN or Pakatan, they are just tools to create an illusion.
Of course what I say is advanced political theory. But hold these thoughts and ruminate over them. This is a central theme all common people must become well aware of. This is central to our understanding of how things work in our universe.
We want historical injustices corrected
Hindraf's political platform is entirely about correcting the historical injustices and gross and serious violations of the human rights of the Indian poor since the time the Indian coolie was brought to Malaya by the white colonialists.
The injustice and violations of the rights of the poor continue till today. Our firm belief is that none of this happened as if in a fit of an absent mind. They were all the result of conscious decisions by the political and economic elite of the country. This is still true today.
So, Hindraf is meeting the elite, eye-to-eye, with our blueprint demands. Hindraf is effectively demanding that the elite accept that they committed these atrocities and demand they atone for it by implementing comprehensive programmes of correction.
The proposals in the blueprint are entirely justifiable, no matter which way you look at them. The issue of racism does not arise at all. Only the defenders of the elite - the puppets - use this as a convenient argument.
We are actually engaging in this conversation with the elite through the political party puppets. And look at how vehemently the political party puppets use convenient and self-serving arguments to defend the position of the elite .
The puppets may be two political coalitions, but the puppet master is only one. So, the fundamental policies will be one. In the contention between these political parties, one-upmanship becomes their real policy.
Remove the chaff and what you get is the same set of policies from the two coalitions at the end of the day.
We got a glimpse of that with Anwar Ibrahim's response to the Australian media when questioned about Lynas the other day. The same policy comes through. You can give any number of reasons to justify and once you are in power, a lot more comes into play for you.
Hindraf operates with this model. A model, in our opinion, that is devoid of the illusions that the elite want to create to control us, and everything else.
This, briefly, is my analysis of the reasons why both sides of the political divide want to see the Hindraf blueprint killed off. They do not think any such transgression has occurred as we insist. This is normal in their worldview. So what we ask is "terlalu".
Hindraf's political platform is entirely about correcting the historical injustices and gross and serious violations of the human rights of the Indian poor since the time the Indian coolie was brought to Malaya by the white colonialists.
The injustice and violations of the rights of the poor continue till today. Our firm belief is that none of this happened as if in a fit of an absent mind. They were all the result of conscious decisions by the political and economic elite of the country. This is still true today.
So, Hindraf is meeting the elite, eye-to-eye, with our blueprint demands. Hindraf is effectively demanding that the elite accept that they committed these atrocities and demand they atone for it by implementing comprehensive programmes of correction.The proposals in the blueprint are entirely justifiable, no matter which way you look at them. The issue of racism does not arise at all. Only the defenders of the elite - the puppets - use this as a convenient argument.
We are actually engaging in this conversation with the elite through the political party puppets. And look at how vehemently the political party puppets use convenient and self-serving arguments to defend the position of the elite .
The puppets may be two political coalitions, but the puppet master is only one. So, the fundamental policies will be one. In the contention between these political parties, one-upmanship becomes their real policy.
Remove the chaff and what you get is the same set of policies from the two coalitions at the end of the day.
We got a glimpse of that with Anwar Ibrahim's response to the Australian media when questioned about Lynas the other day. The same policy comes through. You can give any number of reasons to justify and once you are in power, a lot more comes into play for you.
Hindraf operates with this model. A model, in our opinion, that is devoid of the illusions that the elite want to create to control us, and everything else.
This, briefly, is my analysis of the reasons why both sides of the political divide want to see the Hindraf blueprint killed off. They do not think any such transgression has occurred as we insist. This is normal in their worldview. So what we ask is "terlalu".
P WAYTHAMOORTHY is chairperson of Hindraf.
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