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Speech at DAP Bagan Dinner (2)        
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Penang, Friday): MIC President and Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu is in India to attend the three-day conference for People of Indian Origin (PIO) and he is taking the opportunity to meet the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to explain to them the position of the Indian Malaysians in the country.

When Hindraf leaders sought to explain to Indian political leaders the plight of the Indian Malaysians as a new underclass after long-standing political, economic, educational, social, cultural and religious marginalization, they were accused of being anti-national, disloyal and traitors of the country.

Can Samy Vellu be equally denounced now as anti-national, disloyal and traitor for involving Indian leaders in the Malaysian domestic affairs with regard to the plight of the Indian Malaysians?

Samy Vellu is organizing a mammoth 15,000-people rally at the Cheras Badminton Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on January 20 to pledge support for Barisan Nasional and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

This is to be the first in a series of rallies being organised by MIC throughout the country.

Nobody would object to Samy Vellu organizing rallies throughout the country to pledge support to the Prime Minister and the Barisan Nasional, but he should not go against the interests of the Malaysian Indian community and in particular their belated political awakening in demanding for an end to their long-standing marginalization from being given proper recognition as equal and rightful citizens of Malaysia.

For this reason, apart from declaring support and loyalty to Abdullah and Barisan Nasional, the series of forthcoming MIC rallies should have another common theme – to openly acknowledge the problem of the long-standing marginalization of the Indians in Malaysia and to urge the Prime Minister to formulate and implement a New Deal for the Indians so that they could enjoy an equal place under the Malaysian sun.

Otherwise, the series of MIC rallies must be regarded as detrimental to the rights and interests of Indian Malaysians if their whole purpose is to destroy the momentum of political awakening in the Indian Malaysian community demanding government action to end their marginalization.
 

(04/01/2008)