"Government Doing Its Best For Indians," Says PM. How Accurate Is His Claim?

There is a report in the NST today headlined 'Government doing its best for Indians, says PM', where Pak Lah has apparently 'blasted' Hindraf’s claims of the mistreatment of Malaysian Indians as lies intended to divide the races and destroy the country’s peace.

He took grave exception to a memorandum asking the British government to lead an international condemnation of Malaysia’s “atrocities” against Indians. “Hindraf is making baseless allegations and wants the United Kingdom to move an emergency United Nations resolution condemning ethnic cleansing in Malaysia. Tell me, do you believe there is ethnic cleansing in Malaysia? Is there ethnic cleansing, tell me? If this happened, I will resign,” he is reported to have said.

"Even the Indians who are Hindus do not believe it. Ethnic cleansing was perpetrated in Bosnia where the Serbs attacked the Bosnians to chase them out and make them non-existent. It was backed by the state. We do not do this here,” he added.

The unfortunate part of Pak Lah's reaction to Hindraf's memorandum is that while he is understandably angered at the false claim of ethnic cleansing which for the record I am positive has never taken place here, he too like the rest of the Umno leadership obstinately refuses to acknowledge the serious wrongs that have been visited upon this and other minorities in Malaysia. While he has cleverly latched on to the 'ethnic cleansing' bit, he has totally avoided addressing the crux of the issue at hand which is the discrimination and marginalization of an entire community by the Umno-led government. He has also not given an inch of acceptance to the main points raised by the Hindraf.

He too probably feels that the serious misdeeds of Umno in the name of bangsa, agama dan negara, the refusal to bring to a close the extremely racist NEP and the resultant precarious state of inter-racial unity are all justified, essential and acceptable. In the minds of these pemimpin, Umno can do no wrong and this is how the country will continue to be administered, despite whatever 'unjustifiable and unreasonable' demands the 'wealthy' non-Malays may make. Therefore the PM has no case to answer, there is no real problem and the so-called issues raised by the non-Malays are without basis. And those who bring up these 'irrelevant' matters are ungrateful troublemakers, traitors to the nation and terrorists.

While our government takes an enlightened view on foreign crises like the Palestine issue, the Iraq quagmire and even the 911 attacks, consistently urging western powers to look at the ROOT CAUSES for these problems, why then is it pretending to be blind and obstinately refusing to even consider the root causes behind the dilemma faced by minorities here? Is there one rule for foreign problems and another for homegrown ones?

Umno today is representative of the proverbial immovable object. The nascent public protests are the precursors of tomorrow's irresistible force. If the feudal, self-serving mentality which pervades the party leaders does not make way for more realistic and fair policies, then be prepared for a battle royale in the not too distant future between umnoputeras on one side and the rest of the country on the other.
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Interesting fairy tale: Government Never Ignored Minority Races In Malaysia, Says Nazri.