Abdullah annoyed over ethnic cleansing charges
Enraged leader: Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday he was very angry over false claims made by Hindu Rights Action Force that his government was carrying out ethnic cleansing of Malaysian Indian.Picture: AFP
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday lashed out at at the Hindu rights group, which organised Sunday's protest, saying it had wrongly accused the Malaysian government of racism.
"The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) has gone overboard in telling a blatant lie, accusing the Malaysian government of carrying out ethnic cleansing on the Indians in the country"Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.
Visibly angry over the accusation, the Malaysian Prime Minister said it was a baseless allegation and a blatant lie that could arouse hatred among multiracial Malaysians and spark racial clashes.
"I'm really angry, I rarely get angry but this blatant lie cannot be tolerated at all," he told reporters after opening the state-level Hadhari Village in Tanjung Bidara.
The Prime Minister said Hindraf had told many lies with malicious intentions to deceive the Indians that they were an exploited race and that the government was carrying out ethnic cleansing on them.
"Ethnic cleansing is like what happened in Bosnia when the Serbians killed and did everything to wipe out Bosnians from the country but we didn't do such things here (in Malaysia)," he said.
Abdullah, expressing regret over Hindraf's complains on the plight of Malaysian Indians to the British government, the United Nations and other international bodies, said the move was merely to disrupt prevailing peace and harmony in the country and to crease racial tension.
He said Hindraf, organiser of the November 25 street demonstration in Kuala Lumpur, was trying to hoodwink the Indians who have lived together in peace and harmony with the other races and have helped the government develop the country to greater heights.
"In our 50 years of independence, we never had any problems with the Indians. The Indians have played their role in being staunch supporters of the Malaysian government and the Barisan Nasional, surely they know the government has been fair and just to them," he said.
Abdullah said the government had never marginalised the Indians in the mainstream development of the nation.
"I've helped them, I've helped them in many ways. They want money to repair their temples, I help because we respect other religions and they are not our enemies, they have cooperated very well with us, this is what has happened," he said.
The Prime Minister said he did want the people, especially the Indians to be misled by Hindraf's unfounded claims and allegations, hoping that other races would not show sympathy to the Indian activist group.
Is this what we are looking for? In Malaysia, there are no problems with Islam and Hindu religions, never happened before, there are no sectarian clashes here, why such things are being raised?
The Prime Minister said Hindraf's actions to "fish in troubled waters" cannot be permitted as the country had laws and constitution for everyone to obey and respect.
He warned legal action would be taken against law breakers.
"We are successful because we are law-abiding citizens. We firmly hold to the Rukun Negara principles," he said, adding that the police were closely monitoring the goings-on in the country, including Hindraf supporters' moves.
Abdullah said the government had always given attention to the various requests made by MIC president Seri S Samy Vellu to improve the socio-economic status of the Indian community.The Prime Minister said he did not want to see Malaysia's development and progress be impeded by irresponsible activist groups like Hindraf.
Bernama
"The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) has gone overboard in telling a blatant lie, accusing the Malaysian government of carrying out ethnic cleansing on the Indians in the country"Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.
Visibly angry over the accusation, the Malaysian Prime Minister said it was a baseless allegation and a blatant lie that could arouse hatred among multiracial Malaysians and spark racial clashes.
"I'm really angry, I rarely get angry but this blatant lie cannot be tolerated at all," he told reporters after opening the state-level Hadhari Village in Tanjung Bidara.
The Prime Minister said Hindraf had told many lies with malicious intentions to deceive the Indians that they were an exploited race and that the government was carrying out ethnic cleansing on them.
"Ethnic cleansing is like what happened in Bosnia when the Serbians killed and did everything to wipe out Bosnians from the country but we didn't do such things here (in Malaysia)," he said.
Abdullah, expressing regret over Hindraf's complains on the plight of Malaysian Indians to the British government, the United Nations and other international bodies, said the move was merely to disrupt prevailing peace and harmony in the country and to crease racial tension.
He said Hindraf, organiser of the November 25 street demonstration in Kuala Lumpur, was trying to hoodwink the Indians who have lived together in peace and harmony with the other races and have helped the government develop the country to greater heights.
"In our 50 years of independence, we never had any problems with the Indians. The Indians have played their role in being staunch supporters of the Malaysian government and the Barisan Nasional, surely they know the government has been fair and just to them," he said.
Abdullah said the government had never marginalised the Indians in the mainstream development of the nation.
"I've helped them, I've helped them in many ways. They want money to repair their temples, I help because we respect other religions and they are not our enemies, they have cooperated very well with us, this is what has happened," he said.
The Prime Minister said he did want the people, especially the Indians to be misled by Hindraf's unfounded claims and allegations, hoping that other races would not show sympathy to the Indian activist group.
Is this what we are looking for? In Malaysia, there are no problems with Islam and Hindu religions, never happened before, there are no sectarian clashes here, why such things are being raised?
The Prime Minister said Hindraf's actions to "fish in troubled waters" cannot be permitted as the country had laws and constitution for everyone to obey and respect.
He warned legal action would be taken against law breakers.
"We are successful because we are law-abiding citizens. We firmly hold to the Rukun Negara principles," he said, adding that the police were closely monitoring the goings-on in the country, including Hindraf supporters' moves.
Abdullah said the government had always given attention to the various requests made by MIC president Seri S Samy Vellu to improve the socio-economic status of the Indian community.The Prime Minister said he did not want to see Malaysia's development and progress be impeded by irresponsible activist groups like Hindraf.
Bernama
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