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."
Uthayakumar's uneasy ties with Pakatan by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Friday, November 23, 2012
"There comes a time when silence is betrayal." - Martin Luther King Jr. INTERVIEW The following is the second of a three-part interview with Human Rights Party leader P Uthayakumar. The first part is here.
Many
now accuse Hindraf and you of being racists but you have a public
record of defending Malaysians regardless of ethnicity. Do you think
that Hindraf's own polemics is to blame or do you think that Malaysians
are generally disinterested in the plight of marginalised communities
after years of being divided along ethnic lines?
Hindraf labeled as a racist outfit by no less than prime
minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim and top Pakatan Rakyat Malay and
Chinese leaders is a very clever political strategy. It's the 3Ds -
‘diverting, diluting and denying' the institutionalised state-sponsored
racist policies which victimise the most vulnerable Indian poor. Only in bi-racial 1Malay-sia and in no other part of the world is a cry
against racism in itself becomes racism. When Hindraf demands equal
rights, equal opportunities and equal upward mobility opportunities for
the Indian poor, we become a ‘racist outfit'.
For 15 long years,
I have tried convincing and engaging for hours with top Pakatan and NGO
leaders not to racially segregate the Indian poor but to no avail. I
have since given up.
Our very first pro bono case
of death in police custody that we took up and had filed in court was
that of Anuar Sarip, 31, 14 years ago in 1999. Our unwavering stand for
justice for this family ended with the apex Federal Court on Oct 10,
2012 rejecting the claims of Suzana Mohammad Aris, Anuar's widow (centre in photo).
Moreover, the very first pro bono case
of applying to the High Court for an unprecedented second post-mortem
to be conducted in a death in police custody case is that of Ho Kwai
See, 29, just to name a few non-Indian cases.
But of course most
of the cases we have taken up involve the Indian poor as they
constitute about 80 percent of the victims, completely disproportionate
to their forming a mere 8 percent of the population. However, we
are not going to be apologetic for focusing on the most vulnerable
Indian poor, especially bearing in mind that the Malay and Chinese
political and NGO leaders, and the Indian elite appear disinterested for
obvious reasons. However, when Hindraf focuses on the Indian
poor, we are conveniently labeled as a racist outfit. Why should Hindraf
not be the focus pressure group on the Indian poor when the ‘evil' Umno
has formed the highest political level Cabinet Committee on the Indians
and led by no less than the Malay prime minister himself and never such
a committee on the Orang Asli, Penan, Kadazan and Iban?
Could
you describe what you mean by ‘mandore/madorini' and does this mean
that Hindraf, besides fighting against the systemic discrimination under
Umno-BN, is also fighting against the entrenched class system in the
Indian community?
‘Mandore' is a term I had formulated
as Item 7 of the Hindraf 18-point demands, and was widely used at the
height of the 2007 Hindraf nationwide forums. This word shot to fame
when I had repeated the same on the live Al Jazeera interview at its
studio in the afternoon of Nov 25, 2007 Hindraf rally. It was originally used to describe the Umno, self-serving, cari makan,
powerless, front men and fall men MIC mandores who were used to
mislead, misrepresent, short change, cheat, dish out piecemeal and
temporary handouts and to keep the Indian poor out of the national
mainstream development of bi-racial 1Malay-sia.
In
return, they are blessed with some token rewards. In the post-2008
general elections era, unfortunately, even the Pakatan state governments
have aped Umno, but using their very own pseudo ‘multi-racialist'
mostly English-speaking Indian elite mandores.
These Indian
mandores are being used to give the impression that they can solve the
Indian poor problems. Having no or very little power to deliver, they
end up doing the old MIC job by dishing out the peanuts ‘peruntukan'.
Their full-time jobs keep them politically afloat and relevant when in
their spare time they dish out hampers, rice packets, small ang pows,
mock cheques and feeding Tamil dailies with propaganda.
Moreover, when they eventually fail to deliver, the Indian poor would
vent their anger and frustrations against these Indian mandores. A very
clever racist Umno political strategy now conveniently adopted by
Pakatan. The real power wielding tuans and towkays get away
scot-free. The tragedy being the MIC mandores today have been replaced
by the Pakatan ‘multi-racialist' English-speaking elite Indian mandores.
Do you think that the Indian middle class has abandoned the issues confronting the working class/disenfranchised Indians.
So who is racist now? Why should it not be the Malay and Chinese
middle-class not abandoning the Indian poor? After all, we are
multi-racial and 1Malaysia. It is the duty of the Umno and Pakatan
governments not to abandon the Indian poor. In any event, the
Indian middle-class are not in much of a position to help, as are the
Malay and Chinese middle-class. The Ananda Krishnans, Gnanalingams and
Fernandeses are mere Umno showpiece proxies. Not many people know that Tony Fernandes owns only 7.5 percent of AirAsia shares. However, Umno projects him as Mr AirAsia.
Do
you think there is any difference between Pakatan and BN? Could you
describe your interactions with Pakatan and do you think that Pakatan
has lived up to the expectations of Hindraf?
Yes, we
want a change. We acknowledge that Umno is one of the last few regimes
in the world that has ruled for 55 long years without a break in the
chain. The other regimes being Zimbabwe, North Korea, Saudi Arabia,
China, to name a few. However, Hindraf is not prepared to take
responsibility for Pakatan's non-delivery on the Hindraf 18-point
demand. We are worried that the Umno institutionalised, private sector
racist policies that victimises the Indian poor will not change when
Pakatan gets Putrajaya as per the early warning signs we detect in
Pakatan's state little Putrajayas. This is the Hindraf dilemma.
Unfortunately, Hindraf only sees a marginal difference if Pakatan claims
Putrajaya concerning the Indian poor. As a nation, we expect to see a
better system of governance, better police force, less corruption, toned
down Little Napoleons, less abuse of powers by government enforcement
agencies, etc. Pakatan does not want to engage Hindraf because
we champion this cause without fear or favour, refuse to be the Pakatan
Indian mandores, refuse to take their ‘perks' posts, positions and
therefore cannot be controlled. For the record, no one from Hindraf has
ever taken up any positions in the Pakatan state governments.
This way we remain independent, non-compromised and able to act in the
best interest of the Indian poor. Unfortunately, as it stands we only
see a slightly better version of an Umno clone in Pakatan-controlled
states concerning the Indian poor.
Besides the racist
label, many have accused you of being "stubborn" in your dealings with
Pakatan. What is your response to such accusations?
Yes, if Hindraf does not demand delivery of the 18-point demand,
does not demand for seats, does not point out Pakatan's racism - which
is like Umno victimising the Indian poor - but instead pledge blind
support to Pakatan as what MIC does for Umno, Hindraf and I would become
the darling of Pakatan and Malaysiakini readers and no more "racist and stubborn".
Racist
label for crying out against racism? Stubborn, because we refuse to
kowtow to become Pakatan Indian mandores? We cannot help it if we are
deemed stubborn in struggling to see an end to the Umno-style government
racist policies and the victimising of the Indian poor in the five
Pakatan states now and when they get to Putrajaya, which Pakatan most
likely would in GE13.
We wish them well. But Hindraf will not
compromise on the ‘below the water problems' affecting the Indian poor
and will continue being the ‘stubborn' pressure group, even with Pakatan
at the helm at Putrajaya.
We will continue being stubborn
struggling to end the tears of the Indian poor of their day-to-day
misery for which most see committing suicide as their only way out. This
is how serious the Indian problem is. Is Malaysia a civil society? A masyarakat madani?
How
does Hindraf view the non-BN Indian politicians and could you describe
Hindraf's interactions with them? Do you think there has been a lack of
self-criticism in the Indian community or do you think that for so long
as a certain section of the Indian community has been under siege that
self-criticism would be an unnecessary distraction from the larger
social and economic concerns ?
There are 11 and 13
Pakatan Indian MPs and state assemblymen respectively. But all of them
were powerless, for example, to stop the demolishment of the aforesaid
Kg Buah Pala, Ladang Batu Pekaka Hindu Cemetery (Kedah PAS) or the
Ampang Hindu temple by the Pakatan state governments, which Pakatan
wouldn't dare do to the Malay and Chinese communities. A Pakatan
Adun conceded that he has no powers to even pick up the phone and call
the local council president to issue even a ‘kachang putih' licence to
an Indian poor. What more Felda-like land for at least 100 of the
poorest hardcore poor Indians in? No way. All the other Pakatan MPs and
Adun are in the same status. But when we refer to them as mandores, they
get very sensitive.
Just this morning (Nov 18, 2012), I read an
interview of the most senior Pakatan Indian MP. He outlines Pakatan's
‘feather weight' success as having fought (with mandore S Samy Vellu) on
the dissolution of the South Indian Labour Fund, saving the Sitiawan
Indian Association land. He or any of the other MPs and Aduns is
powerless to get their Pakatan tuans and towkays to deliver at the
Pakatan-state level. For example, the Felda-like 10 acre land ownership
for 10,000 of the poorest Indians for land titles or for all 311 Tamil
schools, all Hindu temples and all Hindu cemeteries in the Pakatan
states in an "all in one go" policy.
We choose not to interact
with these Pakatan Indian mandores just as we chose not to interact with
the MIC mandores. We go straight for the jugular, the powerful Umno and
Pakatan top Malay and Chinese political leaders who wield the real
power, and are the policymakers, decision makers and implementers. Malaysiakini Yesterday: The state's war against Uthayakumar
