The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) had to drop demands pertaining to racism and death in custody in its historic pact with the BN, signed by the coalition’s chairperson Najib Abdul Razak yesterday.
“We had to concede during the negotiations… points relating to human rights,” the movement’s advisor N Ganesan told Malaysiakini today.
However, he said that this was done in the backdrop of guarantees for the greater economic welfare of the Indian Malaysians.
“Our focus now is economic justice,” he reasoned, arguing that binding assurances for the uplifting of the Indian poor is a major victory in itself.
Ganesan said the four points contained in the agreement between BN and Hindraf are:
- Economic opportunities, housing, re-skilling and training for displaced estate workers;
- Relief for stateless persons;
- Increased education opportunities from primary to tertiary levels, including scholarships for Indians;
- Giving Indians increased access to employment and business opportunities.
The two demands dropped relate to racism against Indians and death in custody involving Indians.
Ganesan reiterated that this new deal is good for Indian community, especially the Indian poor.
Asked why he think there are instant opposition to the deal, he blamed politicking.
“The people that are jumping up and down over this, they don’t even know what the contents are. This is all because of politics. Tis’ the season of politics.,” he sniped.
Ganesan added that they already gave Pakatan Rakyat the same opportunity to sign an binding agreement with them, but after 24 meetings and a lot of wasted time, they received nothing meaningful from the opposition coalition.
In fact, just three days ago he described how Hindraf representatives had went for a meeting with PKR at their Petaling Jaya headquarters.
“They insulted us; there were no one (there at the headquarters) to meet with us,” he lamented.
Najib , on the other hand, not only gave them what they wanted with the agreement, but also apologised to Indians during the signing ceremony for all the previous lapses of BN, praised Ganesan.
While they are not forgetting the ruling coalition’s failures to take care of their welfare in the last 50 years, he said with the new deal, Najib is giving Indians a better promise for the future.
-Malaysiakini
