The news Today.
Among other things, this one really caught my attention.
It is reported that HINDRAF, a coalition of 30 NGOs fighting for the rights of the Indian community in Malaysia are gearing for a protest this weekend. Their request to hold assembly every weekend was declined by the police and other than that, this 25th November’s gathering is particularly important because, I quote –”TO PRESENT 100,000 SIGNATURES TO QUEEN ELIZABETH II AT THE BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION, JALAN AMPANG, KUALA LUMPUR “.
Oh, what petition?
This I found in Wiki(not a really reliable source, mind you. The article is a turn-off btw. Had a hard time trying not to break out in curses.)
“On 30th August 2007 a class action on behalf of Malaysian Indians was filed at The Royal Courts of Justice in London to sue the UK Government 48 trillion pound for bringing in Indians as indentured laborers into Malaya & exploiting them for 150 years & thereafter failing to protect the minority Indians rights in The Federal constitution when independence was granted, Hence making Malaysian Indians a permanently colonialized society until today. A petition with 100,000 signatures are targeted to be collected and be presented to her Royal Highness the Queen of England appoint her Majesty’s Queen Counsels to represent the poor, underclass, oppressed and suppressed Malaysian Indians would be presented at the British High Commission.“
That is the petition.
48 trillion pounds, for 1.8 million Indians in Malaysia, for the crime of bringing them away from India. Whereas in India, the per capita GDP is 820 USD. That’s a monthly RM 230 compared to the purported lowest income of RM 430 (not the average though–the average would be like every other Malaysians, that’s about 20,000 per year) for an Indian here. What are they making noise about again?
Oh, the marginalization and the oppression.
I’m marginalized and oppressed but you don’t see me storming down the streets. And you never will. You might be screaming that I’m not Indian and that whatever I say here is unfounded but…
48 trillions, that’s laughable. If you see that UK’s GDP is a 2.375 trillion USD per year, would you consider this a valid case? The queen would be laughing so uncontrollably, sending her dentures into a short-lived projectile, and laughing again while groping around for her said dentures.
And other than bringing a thing of the past into the present, this is also a considerably enormous sum (astronomical, actually) they’re asking for. The sex slaves for the Japanese soldiers during WWII only demanded for 4.3 million (and received only 2280 USD in the end btw). Now, that is a far worse violation of human rights compared to being forced to do labor in rubber-estates, and don’t even let me start comparing them to the blacks when they were slaves in cotton fields ala Huckleberry Finn. I think these particular bunch of labor immigrants had it better. Furthermore we are not under the British rule anymore, what’s the point of running to them? What’s with this pattern of running to some assumed authority when the shit hits the fan anyway?
Please la… if you need to do a petition, ask for the removal of Samy Vellu la… from what I see, no Indian likes him and he didn’t do much except for building craphouses, crapcomplexes and craphighways. Protecting the welfare of the Indians? I don’t see much of that from him, just enough to maintain his seat during election la.
And please, don’t taint our country’s image further from the sad state that it currently is in. This is not how things are done.
I seriously have enough of this “protesting” thing already. But this time, the numbers are small though. I think they could be easily dispersed with just one tear gas cannister. You see, I also understand that not every Indian feel that they deserve the 48 trillion pounds and thus think that participating in the protest is nonsense.
I might not be the hardcore-poor housewife with 6 mouths to feed and a drunk husband punching her senseless every night.
This might not be something I can understand at all but I don’t think think that housewife need people to promise her castles in the air by signing the petition.
I think better things can be achieved if these people actually helped out a little here and there. And the government do have subsidies for the poor, no?
Like how my dad always say:
“zhou yan yew kiok thap sat thei–做人要脚踏实地”
meaning, we must have our feet firmly on the ground in whatever that we do.
means don’t be too ambitious la… because in the end you’ll end up with nothing.
