Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
The state's war against Uthayakumar by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, November 22, 2012
"When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson
INTERVIEW By
shining a light on a reality that is more often than not ignored,
dismissed or ridiculed, P Uthayakumar has had to pay a steep price.
This reality, the reality of the marginalised Indian poor, an
underclass that struggles with lack of the necessities of life in
contemporary Malaysia and confronted by a state and in many ways a
society that has perfected the art of discrimination, has found
expression in Hindraf and Uthayakumar.
The
canard that Hindraf is demanding "quotas" is one of the more odious
lies spread by Pakatan Rakyat apparatchiks. In the Hindraf 18-point demand,
the Indian/Tamil/Hindu community is mentioned only in three points,
with reference to land titles to Tamil schools, Hindu temples and
cemeteries and the "de-gerrymandering" for Indian representation in
Parliament.
The remaining 15 points cover Malaysians regardless
of ethnicity and in fact argues for the removal of race-based quotas.
The first point in the demand is the recognition of bumiputera status
for anyone born in Malaysia.
So far DAP, PKR or PAS has yet to
make any such declarations in their supposed multiracial/cultural
manifesto. Indeed Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has gone out of his
way to assure his Malay partners that he has no intention of ever
seeking the highest office in the land. So much for the vicious lie that
Uthayakumar and Hindraf are "racist". Uthayakumar understands
that his is a lone crusade. He makes no apologies in the manner in which
he chooses to make his stand. In my writings, I have been both critical
and supportive of Hindraf.
My conversations with Uthayakumar
were a continuous give-and-take about the "Indian problem" and how best
to resolve it. I disagree with many of Uthayakumar's ideas but this
interview is not the avenue to express them. To the best of my
knowledge, there has never been an in-depth interview with Uthayakumar.
In this three-part interview, I have attempted to give a platform to the
man, whom I have described as the last and best hope for the
marginalised Indian community.
Could you define the Hindraf struggle?
Firstly, being a lawyer by training and a political activist rather
than a politician per se, I beg leave to answer without fear or favour. I
am prepared to take an unpopular stand, refusing to play to the
majoritarian bi-racial 1Malay-sian political gallery by not taking a
politically correct stand and am willing to receive brickbats from Malaysiakini readers.
The
Hindraf struggle was founded on the 18-point demands. The thrust of the
Hindraf struggle is against institutionalised Umno and Pakatan racist
government and state policies. We strive for equal rights, equal
opportunities and equal upward mobility opportunities on a needs basis
against a system that victimises in particular the most vulnerable
Indian poor in Malaysia.
The Hindraf struggle is about permanent
and wholesome solutions from Umno and Pakatan state governments as
granted to the bi-racial 1Malay-sian Malay and Chinese communities and
not the temporary piecemeal solutions for the Indian poor like dishing
out hampers, rice bags, ang pows, mock cheques and other handouts. Hindraf supports regime change and wishes Pakatan all the best, but it
does not want the federal government to be replaced by an Umno clone.
Nevertheless, on a people-to-people basis the Indians have no or very
little problems with the Malay or Chinese communities at the ground
level.
Could you describe your experiences under the ISA and your early activism that led to conflicts with the state?
Prior to my ISA detention on Dec 13, 2007, I started from scratch and
for about 16 years had to operate almost solo until just before the Nov
25, 2007 Hindraf rally. There were no takers for the real cause of the
Indian poor, which does not draw very much political mileage nor is it
"press worthy" by the standards of the bi-racial 1Malay-sian mainstream
media and to a lesser extent the alternative media. It was an
uphill battle. With the odds stacked against us and propelled by my very
strong belief in this serious plight of the Indian poor, I became
hardened and was mentally prepared for the worst.
ISA was not the worst because back in 2003, at the height of my deaths in police custody and police shooting campaigns, I was attacked at gunpoint by police officers in civilian attire. Because of this, I must say that my suffering under ISA detention was minimal. At
Kamunting Prison, I used to read and write for about 14 to 15 hours
daily. With time on my side, I managed to write two books, namely
‘Indian Political Empowerment Strategy' and ‘25th Nov 07 Hindraf Rally'.
My
reading and making daily notes in my diaries for about six hours from
the three mainstream dailies given to us only reaffirmed my earlier
findings of the very serious level of racism, made far worse as the
Indian poor do not even have the village-level social safety net, unlike
the poor Malays, Orang Asli, Iban and Kadazan. Even the Chinese poor
have 508 Chinese new villages as social safety nets nationwide.
It
was in prison that I learnt to read Tamil. In prison, every day was a
working day or rather every day was a working holiday. My secret of
having kept well in prison was in not thinking about the outside world
or the date I would be released, which was the key method of torture by
our oppressors.
Unlike
the many other famed ISA detainees, I think we were a lot more
fortunate because of the extent of the Indian poor persistent campaigns
and prayer meetings at Hindu temples nationwide. It was after these
heightened public campaigns and March 8, 2008 political tsunami that
eventually led to the abolishment of the ISA.
In fact, I was the very last political prisoner to have walked out of Kamunting Prison.
Could give us some examples of what has gone in your sedition trial and the kinds of ‘official' harassment you have encountered?
On Nov 7, 2012, the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court decision was to call for my defence despite the following facts: The Umno attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail on an extremely rare
occasion appeared in court to personally prosecute me on Dec 11, 2007.
He had informed the court that the prosecution has the witnesses to
prove that the (Kampung Medan and other) "ethnic cleansing" did not take
place in Malaysia.
The vindictive deputy public prosecutor
(DPP) Noorin Badaruddin, in her opening speech, told the court that they
have the witnesses who operated the website which had published the
supposed seditious letter to the then-British prime minister Gordon
Brown, which in any event did not bear my signature though it carried my
name. None of these witnesses was ever called. The policewatchmalaysia. com
website that allegedly published this letter was closed down for good
by the government the following month after my detention under the ISA
on Dec 13, 2007 - two days after the sedition charge.The
alleged letter was never recovered from me, my office or premises or
vehicles controlled by me despite an official police search. I was never
arrested nor statements taken from me. I was abruptly arrested on my
way to my office and was prosecuted on the very same day on Dec 11,
2007.
This was within days of ex-prime minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi (left)
making media statements upon returning from the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting at Harare where he was believed to have been
embarrassed when questioned on the Hindraf letter to Gordon Brown.
He publicly declared that he seldom gets angry, but this time he was very angry with Hindraf. I was to be punished as the de facto leader
of Hindraf, for organising and leading to the Nov 25, 2007 watershed
Hindraf rally and for having succeeded in exposing to the world the
state-sponsored and private sector racist victimisation of the most
vulnerable Indian poor. So where is the prima facie case for the
defence to be called? The judge allowed almost all of the DPP's
questions and objections but rejected almost all my applications and
crucial questions to the prosecution witnesses, not even on a hint or
baseless objections by the DPP.
In one day alone, 34 of my
pertinent questions to the prosecution witnesses were rejected. All
questions on Umno institutional racism and the systematic social "ethnic
cleansing" of the Indian poor were not allowed. Finally a
three- and two-hour time limit was imposed on the two prosecution
witnesses, the then deputy federal CID chief DCP Acryl Sani Abdullah
Sani and the investigating officer, ASP Redzaime.
Moreover,
my further 150 questions were not allowed after this time limit.
Despite numerous applications, the judge had refused to recuse himself.
Despite this predictable outcome, I have filed five appeals and two
applications to the High Court, more for the record.
Despite the fact that the prime minister and the de facto law
minister having announced the repeal of the Sedition Act as part of the
government legal transformation programmes, as being obsolete and an
admission that criticisms against the government are now allowed; to
give effect to freedom of speech as is guaranteed by Article 10 of the
federal constitution, even the apex Federal Court on Oct 16, 2012
dismissed my review application for the charges against me to be
dismissed. At first year of law school at Ealing College of
Higher Education (now Thames Valley University), London in 1984, I was
taught, "Justice must not only be done but must manifestly and
undoubtedly be seen to be done". Res Ipsa Loquiteour. Now the
trial has been fixed for hearing for two weeks and unusually even the
submission date has been fixed in January 2013 despite that I have 41
witnesses.
This would mean that I would have to complete four
witnesses in one day of trial. Umno's intended conviction would
disqualify me from contesting in the imminent 13th general elections. My intended witnesses include Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the Suhakam
chairperson for not holding a royal commission of inquiry and Suhakam
inquiry respectively, attorney-general Gani Patail for not prosecuting
the criminals in the Kg Medan "ethnic cleansing" where five Indian poor
were murdered and one hundred sustained grievous bodily injuries,
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on this politically-motivated sedition charge, and
the inspector-general of police for racially profiling Indian poor
suspects.
As
to whether the courts would issue subpoenas for these witnesses is yet
another matter bearing in mind that the subpoena application for Gordon
Brown (right) was dismissed.
For being one-and-a-half
hours late to court as I was held up at the High Court, this judge
forfeited RM7,000 of the bail and increased the bail from RM10,000 to
RM15,000, with a final warning that bail would be revoked for good if it
happens again. My repeated apology and an undertaking that it would not
happen again did not help.
Whatever the outcome, should I be
convicted even with a mere fine, I am considering not applying for stay
but opting for jail as a matter of principle. I will do this in keeping
to the Hindraf 18-point demands which I had drafted and for which I
stand by and I have already served one-and-a-half years of ISA jail
sentence. Double jeopardy?
Should I be convicted, the maximum
punishment is a three-year jail sentence or RM5,000 fine, or both.
(Penang Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng previously served a one-and-a-half
year jail sentence for sedition. This is so as not to allow Umno
to hold me ‘ransom' until the disposal of my appeals right up to the
apex Federal Court, which outcomes are again predictable. During this
imprisonment, I have decided to write my third book entitled ‘Never Won a
Case in Malay-sian Courts - 50 Public Interest Cases'. Malaysiakini
