HOUSE OF LORDS BRIEFING ON THE PLIGHT OF MALAYSIAN ETHNIC INDIAN

British Conservative party's Shadow Minister for Education and a
member of the House of Lords Baroness Verma of Leicester today (Dec
8, 2008) hosted a briefing on the plight of minority Indian rights of
Malaysia.

The briefing was held at the House of Lords on behalf of the Friends
of Minority Communities in Malaysia.

The purpose of the briefing was for members of the House of Lords
and House of Commons to obtain a true picture on the plights of the
ethnic minority Indian community in Malaysia.

Baroness Verma had extended invitation to key personalities from
Malaysian as well as from the USA.

The speakers were the Director of Public Policy of the Hindu American
Foundation Ishani Chowdhury, the Director of Centre for Public Policy
Studies (Malaysia) Tricia Yeoh, Human Rights Advocate (Malaysia) P
Waythamoorthy and the editor of Malaysiakini.com K Kabilan.

"This is an important event that emphasizes the need to sustain focus
on a nation that continues to discriminate against the minority Hindu
population by judicial onslaughts, educational impediments and temple
destruction," Ms Chowdhury told the briefing.

"The Malaysian government needs to work with its peaceful and
productive minority community and address these legitimate
grievances. Only then can it ensure true upliftment of its people and
progress as a multi-ethnic nation," she added.

Ms Yeoh said that Indians in Malaysia were excluded from the
mainstream, were mismanaged, and was a misunderstood community.

She said that there were an estimated 40,000 unregistered Indian
children nationwide and as a result they were excluded from
examinations, university, scholarships, access to healthcare,
business and employment.

"The Indian participation in the civil sector has also dwindled in
recent years. Their representation in civil service stood at 7.2% in
2006 and now it is on 2.8%," she said.

Ms Yeoh also touched on the various Malaysian government measures
and efforts to solve the Indian problems.

Kabilan spoke about the plight of the plantation workers in Malaysia,
stating that their condition had largely remained unchanged since
independence in 1957.

"Issues such as wages, housing rights, education and healthcare are
still there," he said.

"In 1941 and then in 1946, there were reports published which stated
that these plantation workers wanted a better wage structure, an
improvement of living quarters, a proper healthcare and a proper
education.

"Malaysiakini did a story on bonded laborers' two years ago and we
found out that these workers were still in want of the same things
which were originally sought in 1941," he added.

He also said that the measures implemented by the government had been
insufficient in addressing the problems faced by these plantation
workers.

Waythamoorthy, who is also the chairperson of the Hindraf, spoke on
the marginalisation of the Indian community for the past 50 years.

"And for speaking up these issues, five Hindraf leaders have been
detained under the draconian Internal Security Act which provided for
detention without trial," he said.

He urged the Baroness to look into the sorry situation of the Indian
community in Malaysia and to influence British politicians to raise
their concerns to the Malaysian government.

"We will continue in highlighting the grievances of this community
in the international arena as the local government is not keen to
meet us and address the issues," he said in the briefing.

Representatives of Civil societies within the UK also attended the
briefing which included Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,
European Centre for Human Rights Studies, The Law Society of England
and Wales. Community leaders of the local Hindu/Indian community
pledged their support and agreed to take up the matter further with
the European Parliament members.

A piece of paper does not determine your faith

Religion is a human idea on the relationship between man and the
supreme. There was never an occasion in the history of mankind
where all men and women, worshipped the same God, followed one
doctrine.

This never happened and will never happen. Humans are creatures of
ideas. We have the free will to think and decide what is best for
ourselves. Our ability to imagine can never be governed by any
individual or organisation.

Throughout history, people who shared similar beliefs have
gathered. They introduced rules, rituals and philosophies. This
caused religions to be born.

In this modern world, we are required to state our religion on
official papers. I find it amusing because it does not carry any
weight on an individual's spirituality.

Religion is not similar to race. Religion is about the mind, race
is the physical and cultural characteristic of a human.

Humans have the ability to decide their relationship with God. Just
because someone has stated that he or she follows a particular
religion on official documents, that does not mean that he or she
actualy follows it.

Therefore, in my opinion a piece of paper does not determine your
faith. You may even forcefully change the legal documents of a
person and categorize him under a different religion, but you can
never determine his spirituality. Only an individual knows what
runs in the mind during prayers, chanting of mantra, rituals etc etc
etc. Nobody else will know it except for that particular individual.

Hope the above made some sense. I chose to write my opinion because
there are many organisations out there which are trying to establish
religious rules.

Nobody can determine my spirituality. My way of religion is my
personal choice. It is not necessary for me to follow somebody
elses rules and regulations because this is between me and God.

Regards,

Sharmalan
Seremban.