Ceramah ‘Makkal Sakti’ - 2nd March 2008 - Seremban

muststopthis

Reproduced below is the story which did not make the main stream newspapers.
For the record, two tamil dailies as well as one chinese newspaper sent reporters to cover this event. This story was sent to me by a reader, and on his request, I am posting this.

IMAGe group organized a ceramah on Sunday 2^nd March in Seremban Selatan. The objective of this ceramah was for the local population to understand the realities before them and make the right decision on 8^th March, when they go to cast their votes. IMAGe set up a counter to register Indians turning up for the ceramah in an effort to make more contacts for serving the community. It was interesting to see more people registering after the ceramah.

Ceramah started at 7.00 pm with Mr. Ravindran lightly touching on issues pertaining to Malaysian Indian’s plight and progress after 50 years of contribution to the country.

By the time Mr. Aridass and Mr. Arjunan took to the stage the crowd had already swelled to about 2,000. The main questions in everyone’s mind after their speeches was “What is wrong in asking for our rights as citizens?”, and “How could this happen in our own land?”
Noting that even UMNO leaders (Khairy Jamaluddin, calling Indians and other street demonstrators ‘beruk’ (primates) were making intimidating statements in the past few UMNO general assembly, the racial slurs and wanton criticism of the marginalized Indians cannot be accepted.

Largely because of the attitude of UMNO, the people still believe that Hishamuddin and other UMNO leaders have said that they do not need Indian and Chinese votes in this election.

The speakers spoke about the arrogance of UMNO and the crowd responded by jeering every time MIC and Samy Velu was mentioned.

They gave many specific examples on the plight of Indians which showed clearly that the gathering and outpouring of sentiment on Nov 25^th 2007 was not a result of incitement or false brainwashing by anyone. It was the result of frustration built over decades of promises and half-baked efforts to help. It was a feeling of betrayal of the trust that Malaysian Indians had placed on Barisan Nasional.

Mr. Yohan from IMAGE group spoke next, highlighting the neglect of mother tongue education’. Classes being held in shop lots, ‘kandang kuda’ (stables) and containers speaks of the legacy of BN. He asked why only Indians have to face this.

Why is it that there exist a situation where only about 60 Tamil schools are fully aided while the rest is partially aided remains an issue. The excuse of schools being located in private land is not acceptable.

He talked about the recent announcement of BN giving out millions of aide for reconstruction of Tamil schools which appeared in newspapers. The amount looked impressive, but it only works out to RM 185,000 per school. This is hardly sufficient to lay concrete for a single story building consisting of 8 classes – that too, will depend on how much trickles in after going through the red tape. The bottom line is that our leaders are trying to buy Indian voters by offering millions, but in reality it does not do enough for the community’s progress.

En. Taufik from PAS attracted the crowd by talking about ‘Kerbau Khairi’ trying to ruin life of Indians (whatever is left…..). During his speech he pointed out that only BN breaks temples, and there was no such case by the PAS led government in Kelantan. Hindus in the audience became aware that a new Shiva temple was allowed to be built in Kota Baru, complete with air con, while Hindus in other states have to beg to get land and approvals.

Finally En.Badrul Hisham of PKR took to the stage, raising awareness on corruption of the BN-led government. He proved claims about Pak Lah’s family’s involvement with the ‘oil for food’ scandal. He made aware that Pak Lah’s sister-in-law was involved, and also gave out contract reference numbers and company’s names to prove his point. It was an eye opener for those who do not see this in the main-stream media. He challenged ‘Kerbau Khairy’, son in law of ‘Kepala Bantal’ MP for a debate in Rembau on 6^th March 2008.

The ceramah ended at 10.30, and no one left the area until the last speaker left the stage.

Thanks to Harold Gomez for sending us this news.

People, why this did not appear in the MSM is clear. The government does not want the rest of us to know that the people do not want a racist government anymore. Lets stand together and vote against marginalisation and say no to injustice!