Hindraf seeks UN help to address Indian issues

 

The Hindu Rights Action Force is urging the United Nations to appoint a special rapporteur to specifically look into the plight of the Indian community in Malaysia. The request was made by Hindraf chairperson P Waythamoorthy in a letter written to the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights which is based in Geneva, Switzerland on April 17.

“The Malaysian ethnic Indian has no other choice but to seek redress and solutions at the doorsteps of the United Nations,” he said in the letter. “On behalf of all those oppressed, suppressed and marginalised ethnic Indian community I formally request that you exercise all powers conferred upon you to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Affecting the community,” he added.
                
In his letter, Waythamoorthy - presently based in London following a government crackdown on Hindraf leaders - gave examples of various issues in which the members of the community were sidelined as a result of government policies. “The majority Indian community who belonged to the plantation sectors become internally displaced persons when their traditional plantation land is acquired by government for purposes of development and their very social living lifestyle are disrupted.

“They are not provided adequate compensation for their contributions for the country’s economy over the last 200 years, not provided new job opportunities and training programs. “No permanent alternative is given to resolve their housing problems and ultimately they end up as squatters in urban and remain poor, underclass and neglected.

“When their plantation land is taken they lose their land, houses, temples, schools and end up a new poor class neglected society,” he said in his letter. Waythamoorthy also told Malaysiakini that he was invited to make a presentation on the conditions of the Malaysian Indians at the United Nations Human Rights commission in Geneva on April 17.

by Muhammad Taib