Hindraf does not want to be Big Brother

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Hindraf is exasperated. The non-governmental movement championing the constitutional rights of ethnic Indian citizens in Malaysia has been inundated with all sorts of appeals for assistance that range from the significant to the mundane from the very same community it seeks to empower.

"Yes, yes; people are coming to us for help with some social requirements: scholarships, birth certificates, welfare for the old," sighed W. Sambulingam, the movement's ideological co-ordinator.

"If there are any temple issues, they refer to us. There was one racist slur used by a teacher in Klang and the parents approached us," he added, noting that ever since its Nov 25 rally last year to protest against the marginalised treatment of the minority ethnic Indians by the dominant Muslim Malay government, the public has come to perceive Hindraf as the replacement for the once-omnipotent MIC.

Last month, the New Straits Times published a small article on the plight of a former sari queen and her sister in Perak who have both been stricken with a medical condition and needed financial aid.

The report, in all probability, would have gone unnoticed, relegated to the back rooms of the mind, like so many other sob stories before it, were it not for the last line: "Those who wish to help Lechimy and her sister, Rani, can call 05-536-1890 or Perak Hindraf co-ordinator S. Vethamoorthi at 019-272-5658".

The public perception of Hindraf — short for Hindu Rights Action Force, although the "Hindu" part is a misnomer as religion has nothing to do with their fight — as the new Big Brother to all Malaysian Indians continues to grow, much to the central committee's chagrin.

"We are not out to replace MIC. That is out of the question!" spluttered Dr B. Chandran, one of the six founding members of Hindraf and the co-ordinator for Police Watch Malaysia, the human rights group from which Hindraf evolved.

"MIC is a political body. We're not a political body. We're not anti-establishment. We're not here to support any political party... but we're always supportive of any bodies that are in line with our stand.

"Hindraf is all about the constitutional rights of Indians in Malaysia; it doesn't matter if they are Hindu or Christian or Muslim," he thundered into the phone when contacted by The Malaysian Insider on Wednesday.

It was obvious from his response that he wholly detested the reference. As Chandran later explained, what Hindraf sought to achieve was the very antithesis to the MIC approach.

For Hindraf to be labelled the new "Big Brother" was not only ironic, it was loathsome, a sentiment Sambulingam expressed in a more succinct manner.

"Hindraf does not want to be a Big Brother. We're not going to be the middle man. We're not going to be mandurs for anyone.

"We just want to make sure we're equally treated in this country. We just want our constitutional rights. We're just going to remain a political pressure group," he said.

Sambulingam, however, acknowledged that there were many calls from supporters following the surprising results of the March 8 general election for Hindraf to enter the political arena to fill the political vacuum created by MIC, which they regarded as irrelevant.

For the longest time, well over 51 years now, Sambulingam elaborated, the majority of ethnic Indians have been brainwashed into thinking that they had no rights at all, despite being Malaysian-born citizens. Anything the community needed, they had to go to the MIC to ask them to intercede with the government.

And then Hindraf came along and they did what MIC had not. They went right down to the ground and told the community that they had rights as citizens of the country, even though their colour and creed were different from the majority. They told them that as citizens, they could demand for their rights directly from the government without approaching the MIC to act as an intermediary.

Thus, the grassroots were enlightened and empowered.

Today, half the movement's leaders have been incarcerated under the Internal Security Act, a provision by law that allows the federal government to detain persons suspected of being a national threat without trial.

There is a small team of co-ordinators, numbering some 10 people scattered throughout the country, who execute the plans drawn up by their chairman P. Waythamoorthy, a lawyer by profession, from his self-imposed exile in London.

"To date we do not have any membership list. It's because Hindraf is not just an organisation, but rather a movement that reflects every Malaysian Indian's feeling and emotion of wanting to be treated as citizens of this country who deserve their constitutional rights.

"In that manner, every Malaysian Indian is our member and they are everywhere in this country," said Sambulingam.

-TMI