I like to think simple, but I am also a bleeding heart, so to keep myself from getting confused with the myriad problems that is faced by marginalised Malaysians, and their polycausalities, I work from first principles. Justice, freedom of expression and choice (including the choice of living in the way of their ancestors), the right to fundamental human needs, including but not limited to decent healthcare, security and education, and the right of non participation are among the principles that colour my goggles.
Working from first principles, there are two anak Bangsa Malaysia communities that are marginalised to a greater extent and face more chronically acute (no, not an oxymoron) problems than the rest.
The Orang Asli are the first in this category, regardless of whether they have called the Peninsula or Borneo as their home for the past 50,000 years. http://jeevindra.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/until-the-semangs-are-okay/ and http://jeevindra.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/let-not-the-semang-be-forgotten-lucy-ahmed/ sum up how I see things. If you believe that the Jabatan Orang Asli is there to take care of these tribes, our elder brothers in every sense of the word, you are more wrong than you can imagine. To date, I am yet to see any politician banging the podium on their behalf, and I probably never will.
The second are the poor Indians. And the first thought that will spring in your mind is “HINDRAF”. The second thought will be, “I don’t care, because I am beyond race”. Fair enough.
I believe that the Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia movement will gain traction and become the new rallying call for the alternative media, but this to me will be a populist movement, and I mean that derogatorily as in “pop”. The SABM will champion high profile cases such as Teoh Beng Hock, and other flavour of the month issues such as the cow head incident. They will fight for equality and justice on the basis of petitions, candle light vigils, random protests and by sheer weight of numbers. They will occupy the safe middle ground and attract Malaysians of all backgrounds to believe in their ideals. What they won’t do is raise more than a finger for the Penans, or as in the case of the Kg Buah Pala residents, they will raise the middle finger.
Back to the Indians and Hindraf. Lets look at the cases over the past few days. Husband abducted in front of wife and kids by people claiming to be policemen in Kajang. One death by shooting of a robbery suspect. One murder of a young woman, with body left encased in cement. One murder of a youth in Selayang by unknown assailants. One demolition of an Indian cowherd village, which basically leaves dozens of families robbed of their livelihood. One school shut down, because the roof is just not there. And of course, one cow head. Guess which of this got SABM’s goat? Yes, the cow’s got the goat.
If HINDRAF has become disillusioned with PR and the general Malaysian public, and wants to go at it alone in their fight for the poor Indians, who seem to have only crime as their final fallback when everything else fails, I can’t blame them. At least they embrace their racial cause openly, unlike the MSM which espouses 1Malaysia but is actually UMNO to the core, or the alternative media which only cares about the problems of the middle class and above, and of course Teoh Beng Hock, which to date remains the greatest travesty of justice this country has ever seen.
Me, I am for Human Rights Party of Malaysia. Which claims to fight for Human Rights but fights for Indian Rights. And I am not ashamed of it, because in a land of racists, only the fool will call himself a humanist.
Jeevindra Kumar
