02-16-2008, 07:15 PM
Ethnic Indian protesters shout slogans during a rally in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday.
Jaishree Balasubramanian, Press Trust Of India
Kuala Lumpur, February 16, 2008
Defying a ban, at least 200 ethnic Indian supporters of a Hindu rights
group on Saturday held a rally near Malaysia's Parliament demanding
more rights for the minority community, prompting police to fire tear
gas and chemical-laced water to disperse the demonstrators.
Police said it detained at least 20 supporters of the non-governmental
Hindu Rights Force (Hindraf) which organised the "illegal" rally, days
after announcing plans that its members would march to the Parliament
house along with a group of children led by the organisation' s chief
Wayathamoorthy' s five-year-old daughter Vvaishnnavi.
Hindraf member and lawyer N Surendran, however, claimed that at least
60 people, including two leaders of the organisation, have been
detained in a police crackdown since late Friday night.
Police had denied a permit to Hindraf to hold the rally outside
Parliament and had set up barricades along main roads leading to the
building.
Notwithstanding the ban, some 200 people managed to gather at a nearby
building shouting "Long Live Hindraf" and "We want our rights." Police
sprayed chemical-laced water and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Vvaishnnavi wanted to present roses to Premier Abdullah Badawi and had
last month written a letter to him urging him to be present at the
Parliament house to receive the Valentine flowers from her and other
children.
The letter also contained an appeal to release Vvaishnnavi' s "five
uncles", members of Hindraf who were detained under the Internal
Security Act after they organised a massive rally of over 20,000
Indians against the alleged marginalisation of
the community on November 25 last year. Hindraf hit headlines across
the world after organising that rally.
Today's rally came ahead of general elections on March 8, a year ahead
of schedule. The government has denied allegations of marginalisation
of Indians. However, the November 25 rally took it by total surprise
and since then the government leaders have been busy wooing ethnic
Indians and promising to seriously look into their woes.
Ethnic Indians were brought here by the British nearly 200 years ago
as indentured labourers and many of them stayed back in this country
even after India attained independence.
Indians form 7.8 per cent of the country's total population of 27
million and are mostly Hindus with origin from Tamil Nadu. The Muslim
Malays form 60 per cent of the population while the Chinese, who
account for 25 per cent, are Buddhists or Christians. Malaysia allows
the practice of all regions.