Someone who tried to please Malaysian PM Abdullah Badawi said recently that the PM was perhaps the nicest and bestest premier as he has not used the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) and the people should appreciate it. Not many months later the PM threaten to use the ISA in the wake of the rally organized by Hindraf which gained fame when it filed the $4 trillion lawsuit against the British Government in London.
Already on the brink of receiving the award for being the “Father of Rallies” in the history of Malaysia since Independence, Badawi who was labeled as sleepy-head due to the claims that he almost goes into auto-sleeping-mode during most of the official meetings is actually at the center of crisis. Maybe the word crisis is a bit exaggerated because the current ruling government could never be replaced with the bias delineation exercise that almost give the ruling parties 4 seats vs oppositions’ 1 seat for the same number of voters. But at least the PM is awake – temporarily.
Abdullah Badawi said yesterday that he was aware of complaints about “what is happening to the economy”. He tried to crack a joke that he actually has “big ears” but maybe you should take that with a pinch of salt as whatever entered his left ear could be leaving the other end of the ear as fast as you can blink your eyes. Does this simply mean the local businessmen are unhappy with the way he administer the country’s economy?
Strangely while the government officials immediately jump into denial syndrome again saying it was not true that the Malaysian Indian has been marginalized, the same government via MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) will setup a hotline to “entertain” all problems faced by the Indian community. Wow! Since when a “hotline” is a magic bullet that can solve a community’s poverty, not to mention oppression and suppression, problem? Maybe the country could earn foreign currencies by exporting such know-how to African countries.
To add to the stupidity, Samy Vellu (president of MIC) proudly said that the PM had also asked MIC to set up a special committee to analyse and address socio-economic problems faced by the Indian community. Wait a minute; didn’t the government deny there was any problem with the Malaysian Indian earlier? So why set up a special committee if it was true that Hindraf’s claims were false in the first place? Having fun watching and reading the government shooting their own foots huh?
While the Malaysian Indian make up 8 per cent of the population, their share of the economy is just 1.5 per cent today and little changed from the 1 per cent in the 1970s, thanks to the MIC under the leadership of Samy Vellu. No wonder MIC as a party was not longer relevant since ages ago as can be seen when the ruling party UMNO didn’t give the Indian community the respect when it scheduled its’ AGM right in the middle of Deepavali’s festival recently.
The Hindraf ‘s rally has even courted the attention of India when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had written to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to take immediate and appropriate action to end the “sufferings and bad treatment” of Tamils in Malaysia. Spotting the opportunity to become hero, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz immediately issued a stern warning to Karunanidhi to stay out of the controversy and said he won’t apologize for calling those who participated in the Hindraf rally on Sunday “penyangak” (thugs). Assuming India shouldn’t even whisper the issue in the name of “no interference in other countries” then maybe Malaysia should back off from championing Palestine’s problem after all.
When one are being oppressed, suppressed and systematically marginalized to the extent that another friendly country couldn’t help but to speak up it only goes to show the criticality of it. Stop building a thicker layer of denial wall but face the music like a leader. Admit the failure and take the courage to solve it once and for all. You can issue all the ISA that you can put your signature on but the people will not just keep quiet. If the people are happy with the treatment no way they would demonstrate the way they did (won’t it better to spend the time shopping at MegaMall?). To put the blame on the leaders of Hindraf that demonstrators were being spinned into believing that they’ll get money from the lawsuit is simply insulting the intelligence of the tens of thousand of people.
It won’t do any good if the PM Badawi keep on trumpeting that he has big ears and listening but never take any concreate action(s) to work around the issue. You can only push people to certain degree and when they hit the wall of no return, they’ll “let you know”. The worst thing is you’ve a PM who has no idea what to do in such scenario except to give some marketing talks hoping the issue will disappears when he wakes up the next morning.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- Two Major Rallies within 1 month – great score for PM
- Uproar on Malaysian leader’s remarks
- Govt concerned over plight of ethnic Indians in Malaysia
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December 1st, 2007 by financetwitter
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vow, hard hitting and to the dot. hotline or whatever committee. even shares allocated to MAIKA disappear into thin air. thought the samy guy has also promised to refund the investors monies stuck in MAIKA but like the flip flop Cameron Highlands guy, it is just talk.
no discrimination and victimisation? latest, they are using the sledgehammer against the protestors by charging 20 of them for attempted murder! I thought the police should be the ones facing that for their violent acts against a generally peaceful crowd of protestors.
urgh, is this Islam Hadhari or the hand of SIL ( remember he said hit one monkey hard and the rest will toe the line. Are these Hindraf members the scapegoat?)