GEORGE TOWN: Opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat is unlikely to achieve its dream of capturing Putrajaya in the next general election 'under its current avatar'.
Hindu rights movement Hindraf Makkal Sakti, pouring scorn on Pakatan's aspiration, said as long as the coalition continued to ignore the people's demand for 'real change', there will be no win.
"Pakatan and Anwar Ibrahim will never capture their holy grail if they continue to fail to heed to the people's thirst for real change," said Hindraf adviser N Ganesan.
He urged all Pakatan-ruled states to overhaul their current political and socio-economic policies if the coalition was to get anywhere near Putrajaya.
“Pakatan states must restrategise their policies and structures to convince voters that the coalition is truly a people's alliance,” he said.
He pointed out that many people rejected Barisan Nasional and Umno in the last general election because they yearned for a new political entity with innovative ideas and reform policies to benefit all.
Sadly however the Pakatan-ruled states had failed to heed that call.
"Pakatan governments in Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan have merely put in place cosmetic changes and are continuing with Umno/BN leftover policies.
“People wanted a new people's political alliance, but, two years on, they only got a carbon copy version of BN,” Ganesan told FMT today.
He pointed out that Pakatan's defeats in four of the last five by-elections were warning signs of a real shift in the voting pattern from Pakatan towards BN.
Pakatan recently lost Batu Sapi and Galas. They earlier lost Bagan Pinang and Hulu Selangor.
Except for Batu Sapi, Pakatan won all three seats in 2008 general election. To Pakatan's credit they won the Sibu by-election in May by a hairline majority of just over 300 votes.
Ganesan said given a choice, people would rather prefer to stay with the old wine BN than to vote for Pakatan.
Reminding Pakatan to 'walk its talk', he said the coalition cannot claim to represent the people and their demand for reform and change, when in reality it continues to recycle the same BN policies and programmes.
“Changes cannot be rhetoric . . . they must be real and touch the people's lives,” said Ganesan, who is also an adviser to the yet-to-be-registered Human Rights Party (HRP).
He suggested that Pakatan states carry out policies to stimulate economic growth, incomes, employment and business opportunities.
He called on Pakatan states to provide more affordable and comfortable homes, and upgraded educational facilities to the masses.
He said the coalition should also take pro-active steps to allay fear among non-Muslims against powers of the Syariah laws.
He said Pakatan should also stop BN-like mandore policies to address the marginalised Indian community issues.
He added Pakatan must take into account the needs and interests of all disadvantaged and minority groups, such as Indians in the Peninsula and natives in Sabah and Sarawak.
He said Pakatan must come up with new socio-economic programmes, unlike the current pro-corporate policies, for development of all poor, regardless of their ethnic and religious backgrounds.
“The development policy should be from bottom up and not top to bottom as practiced now,” insisted Ganesan.
He said Umno and BN would not be able to match this if indeed Pakatan went to the ground and provided a real reform alternative to the working class.
He said lack of a real reform-orientated Pakatan currently has given BN the advantage, dashing hopes of Malaysians for a political change.
He suggested for the current Pakatan warlords to set aside their ego to cooperate and compromise with other parties representing minority interests, such as HRP, SAPP and marginalised factions in Pakatan itself like Jeffrey Kittingan’s group in Sabah.
Hindu parent M. Indira Gandhi (centre) is embroiled in a bid similar to Shamala’s. — file pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 — The Malaysian Hindu Sangam is checking with its lawyers for a way to keep alive S. Shamala’s conversion challenge after it was dismissed by the nation’s highest court earlier today.
A five-man panel of the nation’s most senior judges, led by Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi, ruled to close the case of the 38-year-old mother who wants the Federal Court to recognise her right to raise her two young children as Hindus.
“We feel disappointed with the decision. We are also checking with our lawyers on what next we can do because from the first day we have been involved,” the Hindu society’s president Mohan Shanmugam told The Malaysian Insider.
“The conversion was not done right,” an upset-sounding Mohan added.
The society has been keeping tabs on the court case of Shamala’s bid to raise her children Saktiwaran and Theivaswaran in the religion they were born into, for the last eight years.
Shamala had married anaesthetist Dr Jeyaganesh C. Mogarajah in 1998. Her husband was a Hindu at that time but embraced Islam four years later.
He converted their two children into his new-found religion shortly after without Shamala’s knowledge or agreement.
Both parents are in a bitter fight to gain custody over Saktiwaran and Theivaswaran, now aged 11 and nine respectively, and to be allowed to raise them in their respective religions.
Under Malaysian Islamic law, a child necessarily becomes Muslim when one parent enters the faith.
But Shamala claims the federal constitution, the supreme law of the land, provides that she has an equal right as a parent and guardian to decide the religion for children below 18.
Malaysia has a dual-track justice system that allows Muslims to seek legal redress in the Syariah Court, but not non-Muslims.
Dr Jeyaganesh, now also known as Muhammad Ridwan, went to the Syariah Court and won full custody while Shamala, a Hindu, resorted to the civil High Court.
She was awarded custody as well, but was ordered to allow her estranged husband weekend visits.
Shamala appealed the ruling but fled the country with the two children in 2004 before the court could hear the case.
For a while, they were believed to be in Australia, but Shamala’s current whereabouts, as well as that of Saktiwaran and Theivaswaran , remain unknown.
Today’s ruling dealt a hard blow to the battle to end one-sided religious conversions, which has caused a deep rift in this multicultural and secular nation but where Islam is recognised as the official creed.
Zaki, in his grounds of judgment, noted that Shamala had gained an unfair advantage over her husband when she breached a court order allowing the father the right to visit the two children.
“By doing so, she had unlawfully had custody of the children and even if the court were to examine the children now as to who would they chose to live with, most likely they will choose to live with the wife,” the top judge said.
The Federal Court said it cannot adopt a “fugitive doctrine of heads I win, tails you lose” in deciding the basic rights for either parent.
“Parties must have equal footing and not unfair representation,” Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum said in his judgment.
NOV 12 — Today, the Federal Court sidestepped hearing five questions from S. Shamala by allowing her estranged husband’s objection that she must return to the country to enjoy the court’s protection.
She is apparently in Australia with her two children, who had been converted to Islam by her Muslim convert husband.
The questions she had asked are as follows:
1. Whether Section 95 (b) of the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993 is ultra vires (beyond the powers) of Article 12 (4) of the federal constitution (specifically concerning the right to determine the religion of the children under the age of 18 by the parent or guardian) and Article 8 regarding equality rights;
2. Whether the same section in state law is inconsistent with federal law, namely Section 5(1) of the Guardianship of Infants Act 1961, and is therefore invalid;
3. Regarding Article 121 (1A) of the federal constitution, where a custody order for children is made, which court, between the Syariah Court and the High Court, is the higher authority?
4. When there is conversion of children from a civil marriage to Islam by one parent without the consent of the other, are the rights to remedies for the non-Muslim parent vested in the High Court?
5. Does the Syariah Court have jurisdiction to determine the validity of conversions of minors into Islam, once it had been registered by the Registrar of Muallafs (Registrar for newly-converted Muslims)?
The Federal Court evaded the issue by not answering any of the questions, and Malaysia lost an opportunity to figure out the testy and choppy waters of the legality of under-age conversions.
More than that, the implication of the Federal Court decision is that more Shamalas will rely less and less on the courts and, instead, take matters in their own hands. They will flee Malaysia for the courts afford no protection, let alone answers.
Civil courts have, even before this decision, abdicated their rights to hear conversion cases to Syariah courts. So which non-Muslim spouse is going to hang around and be a party to any civil court proceeding where the outcome is known?
This is the harsh reality facing non-Malay or non-Muslim spouses in cases where their partners have converted to Islam without informing the other partner.
Like everything else in racially-polarised Malaysia, this is the question: Can Malaysians expect justice from those who are not from same race and religion when it comes to matters of the faith?
The Federal Court’s silence is loud and deafening. They sidestepped the issue. The people will sidestep the law. And distrust will fester.
Anwar sends his henchman to insult the HINDRAF/HRP protesstors and then sends his other henchman Tian Chua to organize an apology.
Anwar thinks he can play around with the minority Indians in the country as UMNO has been doing. He must take complete responsibility for the insult committed against us who gathered in front of his house on Tuesday the 9th of Novemeber 2010.. Firstly we were protesting there because a temple devotee in Pusat Bandar Puchong M Chakragunasegaran, 52, doused himself with petrol and lit himself up over fears that part of his temple would be demolished by the local authorities. As of the writing of this piece he is in critical condition in the KL General Hospital.
This incident happened because temples like this all over the country do not sit on their own land because of the politics of this land. HINDRAF has been highlighting this from way back in 2005. The political Tsunami occurred in large part due to incidents like this. Came Anwar with all his shouts of “makkal sakthi” and pomises both explicit and implicit that he would take care of the minority Indians in the country like UMNO did not. He got the Indian votes, won 5 states and then he turns around and gives the Indians who voted in large numbers for him the shaft.
He is responsible for this self immolation act in more than one way. One is that he is reneging on all his promises to the Indian poor. Two this is happening in a PKR ruled state and the authorities that came to demolish were from the state. So, we gathered in front of his house to call Anwar to account .
Our Keadilan ( Justice ) guru and leader of the new democracy in Malaysia, what does he do – he sends his lowest level security person, if you can call him even that, someone called Din, to shoo us off, the protestors. That is all we are now worth for him. That is how this exalted democrat deals with protests.
He does not think it worthwhile for Wan Azizah or someone else in his Party in the house at that moment, if he is not in, to come meet us and receive our memorandum in the spirit of democracy. That will be the act of a true democrat. But that will not certainly be an act of a rat. That is what he has become – a rat ( more of that later). This chap Din, not only does he obstruct us, he also acts aggressively and finally he crumples and throws away the memo we had brought for Anwar. All this is no record in video at this
Then a day later after the uproar that this incident caused within the Indian community his other henchman Tian Chua gets this guy Din and comes online and delivers a sham apology. Sham because it is obvious Tian Chua is lying and sham because this guy Din says “kalau say silap saya minta maaf, tapi saya rasa saya pun tak ….kalau saya betul betul aggreif lain cerita..” see it in this video
Tian Chua says and let me quote him from the video ” Saya juga dimaklumkan oleh Anwar Ibrahim dan keluarganya, sebenarnya mereka tidak tahu diluar ada orang demonstrasi.” You expect us to believe this piece of bullshit. Come on Anwar, come on Tian Chua, stop this bloody nonsense.
See the first video and look at the elaborate security that Anwar has in the front of his house. When a serious incident like this is happening in the front of the house, you expect us to believe that they don’t know anything about this inside. What were they doing – were they at the fiddle like Nero? You think the Indians in this country are idiots and you can dish out any nonsense. This is exactly the kind of game a rat plays. Anwar you are increasingly becoming a rat – you are nowhere to be seen now. where is your statesmanship. Where is any moral turpitude? Where is there any integrity left in you? What about an apology or an explanation from you. What about a sound from you. What about from Azizah or is too lowly for you and your queen to deal with this rabble.
Nothing – not a word.
We bury for you, any hopes you may have of going to Putrajaya with this.
Watch this video. I am boiling mad, mad as hell!!! When I see the video.
This is about Anwar Ibrahim and they way he heaps indignity on all of us Indians.
This is the way this fellow who wants to be the future Prime Minister for a new Malaysia treats the minority Indians. After all, the Hindraf/HRP group that were outside his house were there for no other reason than to hand over a protest memorandum for the self immolation of an Indian over the demolition of a temple property in the PKR run State of Selangor . And he is the Defacto leader of PKR and therefore is accountable for such acts in the state. And what does this great leader do – he sends out his coolie to insult the waiting protestors, nay not just the waiting protestors but to insult all the Indians in this country, all the Indians in the country..
I am filled with so much anger at seeing this. We had suffered so much indignity already at the hands of the UMNO regime, now we are increasingly seeing the same kind of nonsense from the so called opposition parties and from Anwar Ibrahim. They are absolutely no better.He thinks because we are a weak minority he can go on demeaning us like this, with impunity. He thinks he can get away with any thing and there will be no retribution.
We have to cut our losses. We definitely need a new approach to pushing UMNO out as this Anwar and his PKR and PR are such a bloody letdown. We do not want UMNO anymore in Putrajaya. we cannot have these PR clowns there too. We definitely need an alternative approach. Every day that passes, he reduces the chance for a change in this country. He is the master pied piper. He just leads down to doom.
You decide for yourself whether these kinds of treacherous fellows need to be supported any more. For, me I am tired of his selfish and devious leadership style . He just has to go. I have no more room for him in my mind.
He has no honor left . He not only does not deliver on his election promises which anyway is not any where near as serious, as what he has just done here with the insult he has heaped on us all. He has trampled on the dignity of all Indians in the country with his act of sending his coolie out to tear up the representation to him.
If you have any modicum of self respect left as an Indian – you must immediately withdraw all and any support for him and his politics totally and unreservedly. Any new body politic that does not understand minority sensitivities needs to be summarily thrown out.
Only decency prevents me from returning his insults with profanity here in my writing.
The rally's estimated to be 100 000 people gathered outside the Petronas Twin Towers at midnight, early Sunday morning.At least 240 people were detained, but half of them were later released. One day before the rally, police arrested three HINDRAF lawyers, P. Uthayakumar, P. Waytha Moorthy and V. Ganabatirau for sedition charges. Uthayakumar and Ganabatirau posted bail of 800 Malaysian ringgits each, but Waytha Moorthy refused bail as a sign of protest.