Shocked by apartheid report
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz was shocked during a recent
work trip to India to find a newspaper there carrying a front page
article that claimed that Malaysia was practising apartheid against
Hindus.
Holding up the DNA newspaper of Nov 28, the International Trade and
Industry Minister said that the article quoted a 22-year-old Sri
Lankan-born poet who had spent 17 years in Malaysia, as saying that
she fled Malaysia last month to escape systematic racial
harassment.
Fleeing Malaysia? Oh my goodness gracious. Can you imagine? This
is really telling lies, Rafidah told reporters yesterday after
chairing a Wanita Umno meeting.
The Wanita Umno chief said that the poet, Sharanya Manivannan, had
also claimed in the article that there had been cases in Malaysia
of body-snatching of Hindu corpses by the authorities so that the
deceased could be buried according to Muslim rites.
She said that the poet, however, had never mentioned that these men
had converted to Islam.
Rafidah added that Sharanya had said in the article that countless
(Hindu) temples have been demolished and idols smashed oftentimes
in the middle of prayer sessions and devotees attacked.
What a lie. Words like this are terrible. The article really
hurts, she said.
Rafidah was heading a trade mission to India from Nov 26 to Dec 1
when she came across the newspaper article at one of the five-star
hotels there.
I was shocked. Obviously there is already an international network
set up, she said, adding that she believed that this was
politically motivated.
During the mission to New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai, the minister
said she was asked once or twice about the Hindu Rights Action
Force (Hindraf) Nov 25 demonstration in Kuala Lumpur.
She said she explained that it was untrue that Hindus were being
marginalised in Malaysia, adding that Malaysian Industrial
Development Authority (MIDA) director-general Datuk R. Karuna
Karan, who accompanied her on the trade mission, was himself a
Malaysian Hindu.
He (Karuna) is a perfect example of those who get to the top. Hes
not there by chance. MIDA is the organisation we put our trust in
to get billions in investments.
And Datuk Karuna is the chief because hes the best, she said,
adding that his predecessor too was a Hindu.
Rafidah slammed Hindraf for using religion for its political
purposes.
She said that if there were groups that felt sidelined, they should
use the proper channels to let the Government know their grievances
in black-and-white, rather than taking it to the streets and to the
Queen of England.
Hindraf has filed a US$4 trillion (RM13.5 trillion) suit in London,
claiming the British is to blame for the marginalisation of Indians
in Malaysia, as they had brought them to the then Malaya as
indentured labourers and exploited them.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said
the system of democracy practised in Malaysia, though dissimilar to
that in the other democratic nations, is fair and
transparent.
Our democracy is founded on our history, cultural values and our
traditions.
The important thing is that we give every citizen the right to
fairly elect anyone they wish to make up the Government, he said
in the Bicarawara interview programme on RTM1 last night.
