Priority is to break back of worsening problem of Indian youth gangsterism with a high-powered Commission of Inquiry to highlight that it is a national problem

This Parliamentary Roundtable on Indian youth gangsterism is most pertinent and timely, not only because the problem has become even more acute and serious in recent years but also because it has been two-decades in the making.

I remember that twenty years ago in April 1992, I had devoted my speech in the debate on the Royal Address in Parliament calling on the government to hear the cry of despair and hopelessness of the Malaysian Indians so as to address the fundamental problems confronting nation-building in Malaysia.

I had spoken of the growing sense of deprivation of the Malaysian Indians, who felt that the government had not been able to do much to improve the plight of the Malaysian Indian estate workers in particular and the Malaysian Indians in general.

For the increasingly displaced and alienated Indian estate workers, the alternative they faced in moving out of the estates was low-productivity jobs in the urban areas – which launched them on the vicious socio-economic cycle resulting in the very serious phenomenon of Indian youth gangsterism today, aggravated by poverty and long-standing socio-economic and educational marginalisation and discrimination. Continue reading “Priority is to break back of worsening problem of Indian youth gangsterism with a high-powered Commission of Inquiry to highlight that it is a national problem”

The happiest PM in the world

Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Oct 15, 2012

The Tunku once described himself as “the happiest prime minister” when he was interviewed in 1983, by Peter Hastings, the foreign editor of the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH).

Today, as we read about Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, and the tactics used against the rakyat, NGOs, civil liberty groups and the opposition, we see a man who resorts to foul play, even breaking the law if necessary, to prolong his political career and that of his party, Umno.

Perhaps, what the Tunku possessed and what his successors lack is a sense of humour. Behind the calm purpose of his jokes, Tunku was able to show his spirit of tolerance.

Tunku laughed when Hastings reminded him of the time an Islamic group had sought the Tunku’s support for adulterers to be stoned to death and he had replied: “There are not enough stones in Malaysia.” Continue reading “The happiest PM in the world”