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Release of Hindraf 5 – pressing agenda of 82 MPs and 196 State Assembly members from DPP

One of the major breakthroughs of the March 8 political tsunami was the transformation of “Makkal Sakti” from a call for the end of the long-standing marginalization of the Malaysian Indians into a rallying and symbolic cry by all Malaysians to end all forms of marginalization against any Malaysian or group, regardless of race or religion.

It is distressing therefore that despite assurances by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that he has heard the voice of Malaysians on March 8 for change, actions taken by the second Abdullah administration have proved otherwise – in particular the statement by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar refusing to release newly-elected Selangor DAP State Assemblyman for Kota Alam Shah and four other Hindraf leaders, P. Uthayakumar, V. Ganabatirau, R. Kenghadharan and T. Vasantha Kumar from Internal Security Act (ISA) detention.

A pressing agenda for 82 MPs and 196 State Assembly members from DAP, PKR and PAS in Malaysia is to work out a common strategy for the immediate and unconditional release of the five Hindraf leaders from ISA detention and to ensure that the second Abdullah government understand the meaning of “Makkal Sakti”.

(Speech at the DAP Bukit Glugor general election thanksgiving dinner to celebrate re-election victory of Karpal Singh as MP for Bukit Glugor at Long Say Building, Burmah Road, Penang on Saturday, 29th March 2008)

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What we want now

Letters
by Steven

Nowadays, by just reading the newspaper and watching TV news, mostly it was related to political news. Well, I admit that most of the Malaysian are kinda shock, surprised or attracted to the past election news. The most important thing is how to improve the quality of life of Malaysians. I really don’t see how these issues were handled carefully in the past. I believe that some people would agree with me. We always know how to compare with others countries, but correct me if I am wrong that the comparison made was always with poorer performance countries. I don’t really understand this. Why we don’t want to improve our nation by comparing to the developing countries? We had already achieved independence by 50 years. Please do not always feel satisfied with what we have achieved nowadays because there is still much room to improve.

Malaysia is a blessed country with many resource like rubber, tin, petroleum, fishes and others. Why we are not utilizing them and make benefits of them for the good of society. Sometimes, I would think that why so many youngsters leave Malaysia and go abroad to work. Of course, the most attractive factor is money, living environment and safety. I still remember that when I was small, our money currency was almost equivalent with Singaporean. But looking at it now, we are much much lower than Singaporean, Euro, Australian and others major countries currency. Please don’t tell us that we are okay nowadays by looking at Malaysia Ringgit vs US Dollar. It was just USD is weak and not Malaysia Ringgit strong. Please awake and do something now before it is too late. I am not financial expert who has the right comment on our Malaysia Ringgit performance. At least I notice that our Ringgit is much depreciated. Please learn it from other countries. I worked in US before, the costs of buying goods like a comb of bananas doesn’t change much from time to time, it was ~USD1 in 2002 and also in 2007. But for us, everything is up. I can’t deny that there is an inflation factor counted in Malaysia’s economy. We would think that the inflation number reported is not right, every year is also low. Does the inflation number reported is just solely based on the controlled goods? Overall, our Ringgit and Sen is weak? Continue reading “What we want now”