HINDRAF’S ACTION SEEMS TO – 2

HINDRAF’S ACTION SEEMS TO – 2
Bernama
June 03, 2008

 

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) Ethnic Studies Institute director Prof Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin said Hindraf’s demands began with its intra-ethnic problems which emanated from the heterogeneous nature (differences in religions, languages, classes and castes) of the community but was later manipulated to become inter-ethnic problems to serve the interests of certain quarters.

In this context, he said people from the lower-income group like plantation workers, were used by a small group of middle-class Indians to arouse hatred against the Barisan Nasional (BN) government by holding a demontration in the capital on Nov 25, last year.

“The elites used the lower-income group to show as if the issues championed by Hindraf were Indian problems,” he told Bernama.

In a statement on Dec 6, last year, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said Hindraf was an unregistered body helmed by five lawyers and a senior executive of a private company.

Five of them, lawyers M. Manoharan who is now Kota Alam Shah assemblyman, P. Uthayakumar, R. Kenghadharan, V. Ganabathirau, and former bank executive K. Vasantha Kumar, were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) on Dec 13, last year for their involvement in organising the Nov 25 street protests and hurling slanderous accusations against the government.