Buzz Sociopolitics Malaysia: Malaysia should be branded an Apartheid state, US lawmakers told

Malaysia should be branded an Apartheid state, US lawmakers told

It was initial Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman who once stormed out of a Commonwealth meet ! in Londo n in May 1960 after blast which he would not be seated during a same list as a President of Apartheid South Africa.

Ironically, fifty-odd years later, Hindraf Makkal Sakthi a NGO is lobbying Washington to systematise Malaysia as an Apartheid state no opposite from which which once existed in South Africa as good as which in conclusion degenerated in to an international pariah.

This is a plea which went out to a US Government in new days by a Human Rights Foundation Malaysia (HuRiFoM), a United Kingdom-based NGO newly set up by Hindraf to outsource its broader Malaysian Agenda.

HuRiFoM, similar to Hindraf, is headed by Kelantan-born lawyer, P. Waythamoorthy, whose elder hermit P. Uthayakumar, is a pro-tem secretary-general of a Human Rights Party Malaysia (HuRiPaMa). Waythamoorthy was granted domestic haven in London after a Malaysian Government cancelled his passport while he was abroad "on a grounds of him having militant links with a Tamil Tigers" -- as good as demanded a document be returned to it by whichever country received him upon landing.

Tracing a source of racism

The bearing of Hindraf's message in a prepared presentation, "Institutional Racism as good as Religious Freedom in Malaysia", for Washington is which "Malaysia is not which bubbling, busy melting pot of races. In reality, it is a country based upon a subtle, pe! rvasive as good as increasingly assertive form of racism".

Three US Government bodies -- a US House Committee upon Foreign Affairs, a US State Department, as good as a Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission - supposed a Hindraf display delivered by HuRiFoM by Waythamoorthy in late Nov.

The dispute which lies just below a artificial calm is so good concealed, according to a presentation, "that someone with not some-more than a cursory believe of Malaysia will find it tough to believe which there exists anything significant otherwise".

Delving in to a source of injustice in Malaysia, a display belabours a point which a Federal Constitution of Malaysia defines a Malay as a Muslim who habitually speaks a Malay language as good as practices Malay culture, customs as good as traditions.

"In reality, as prolonged as a chairman is a Muslim, he can be Malay, even an illegal newcomer as good as a immigrant who is a Muslim can be Malay," points out a presentation.

Syariah Courts take over

At one cadence of a pen, it appears to HuRiFoM, which a Federal Constitution has loser a descendants of a strange Malay settlers in Peninsular Malaysia who came after a Orang Asli.

The Malay definition, according to a HuRiFoM presentation, goes palm in palm with a 1988 amendment to Article 121 of a Federal Constitution to have provisions for a recognition of Islamic Syariah Court and/or Laws, as good as in consequence by deviations as good as distortions, to implement Syariah laws upon non-Muslims whenever there's a dispute between Muslims as good as non-Muslims.

HuRiFoM claims which a Judiciary, where a 60 per cent majority Muslims in a country makes up 90 per cent of those upon a Bench, "has abdicated its powers to a inferior Syariah Courts".

The assorted state policies, in essence, have been originally crafted as good as forged in to a jigsaw of a reinforcing extremist system, continues a ! presenta tion. "The state complement operates underneath a protection of official se! crecy an d a tight reason upon a assorted apparatus of a state".

There have been those who brave to cranky a line as good as when they do, a display noted, "they have been incarcerated without hearing or suffer antagonistic prosecution". Evidently, this renders injustice in Malaysia ambiguous as good as gives a phenomenon a uniquely Malaysian flavour.

The display cites assorted examples of what happens to those who cranky a line in Malaysia upon religion. Three will suffice:

Rani, 56, was a 16-day aged baby when her poverty-stricken Muslim relatives gave her up for embracing a cause to a Hindu couple.

When a authorities caught up with Rani multiform decades after her marriage, Her Hindu father was forcibly taken away, circumcised as good as converted after being threatened with a jail sentence. Meanwhile, Rani's young kids as good as grandchildren have been all without bieing born certificates as they have been practising Hindus as good as not Muslims as a authorities want.

S. Banggarma, a mother of two, was "unknowingly" converted to Islam, in transgression of Article twelve of a Federal Constitution, by state religious authorities during a age of 7 while she was housed during a Welfare Home in Penang.

The Civil Court refuses to listen to her box as good as has referred a matter to a Syariah Court. Her matrimony to a Hindu, Sockalingam, has not been purebred by a authorities as good as her husband's name has been excluded from a bieing born certificates released to her children. The Syariah Court has yet to listen to Banggarma's box though a preference is approaching to be a foregone conclusion against her.

Raimah Bibi is a practising Hindu adopted by Muslim parents.

Her Hindu father was told twenty-one years after their matrimony which his wife as good as his six young kids by her had to be! distant from him as good as placed in a rehabilitation centre by sequence of a Syariah Court.

Explaining Article 153 as good as a NEP to Washington

Away from "the creeping Islamisation of Malaysia", a bulk of HuRiFoM's display is upon Article 153 of a Federal Constitution as good as a New Economic Policy (1970-1990) which had a shelf-life of 15 years as good as twenty years respectively.

Both Article 153 as good as a NEP, according to a presentation, not only continue in a deviated as good as distorted form though cover every aspect of life in Malaysia. Hence, a together drawn by Hindraf as good as HuRiFoM with Aparth! eid Sout h Africa.

Article 153, it was forked out, reserves a in accord with suit for a Orang Asli, a Natives of Sabah as good as Sarawak as good as a Malays in four areas only: intake in to a civil service, intake in to institutions of aloft learning owned by a Government as good as training privileges; supervision scholarships; opportunities from a Government to do business.

The NEP, an appendage of a "business opportunities" proviso, was meant between others to ensure which a target groups own, control as good as conduct thirty per cent of a nation's corporate wealth by 1990.

The reality, complains a presentation, has meant a denial of a legitimate aspirations of a non-Malay communities as pledged underneath a second stump of Article 153.

Elsewhere, a display raises a predicament of a Christians in Malaysia, a mastery of a civil use as good as Judiciary by Muslims, rigged elections, illegal immigrants upon a electoral rolls, as good as a stability disenfranchisement as good as marginalization of a people of Sabah as good as Sarawak as good as Indians.

Malaysia Chronicle