News & Politics - Britain sued over plight of ethnic Indians in Malaysia

elisheva · 11-22-2007, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Malaysian sues Britain over ethnic Indians' woes
Thu Nov 22, 2007 1:51 AM ET

By Clarence Fernandez

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - An ethnic Indian in Malaysia is using an audacious strategy to highlight the plight of his mostly impoverished community by suing Britain, the country's former colonial ruler, for $4 trillion.

The Malaysian government dismisses the case as baseless, but lawyer Waytha Moorthy is determined to pursue it, even vowing to appeal to Britain's Queen Elizabeth to appoint lawyers for the Indian community, which he says is too poor to find its own.

Moorthy wants Britain to pay damages of 1 million sterling ($2.06 million) to each of Malaysia's 2 million ethnic Indians for rights abuses he traces to colonial-era labor schemes that brought their ancestors to Malaysia as indentured workers.

"We are seeking compensation because we were permanently colonized during British rule, and now, under the government of the ethnic Malays," Moorthy told Reuters.

"We have lost touch with our roots and have been suppressed so far," said Moorthy, who accuses British officials of failing to honor their responsibility to protect ethnic Indians when they granted independence to Malaysia in 1957.

In colonial times, many impoverished Indians and Chinese flocked to work and settle in Malaysia, drawn by government schemes meant to attract cheap labor for the country's then lucrative rubber estates and tin mines, he added.

RUN FOR HIS MONEY

Some might feel that Moorthy, who paid court fees of more than 2,000 pounds to file his case in London's Royal Courts of Justice, has already got a run for his money from the Malaysian newspaper headlines that have trumpeted his story.

But the episode highlights a very real dilemma: after 50 years of independence, ethnic Indians, most of whom are Hindu, own just 1.5 percent of the country's national wealth.

The group, which forms about eight percent of Malaysia's 26 million people, says a decades-old affirmative action plan for the country's Malay Muslim majority has deprived it of opportunities, and the government has done little to improve living standards.

The affirmative action plan, adopted after deadly race riots in 1969, favors politically dominant Malays in housing, education, businesses, jobs and state contracts. Ethnic Indians say the policy is discriminatory.

Poor education further cripples their chances of upward social mobility, forcing them to continue being laborers, although some are now losing out to cheaper foreign workers.

"Indians have suffered under the Muslim-majority Malay government and also during British government rule for the past 200 years," said Moorthy.

His suit also asks the British courts to declare the Malaysian constitution void for not safeguarding the rights of ethnic Indians, and seeks British citizenship for the group.

Moorthy said he was gathering 100,000 signatures for a petition to Queen Elizabeth to appoint lawyers to represent the Indian community, which was too poor to pay its own legal costs, which he estimated would reach a million pounds.

"We only want justice in the United Kingdom courts," he added. "Whatever justice is given to us we will accept."

(Editing by David Fogarty)

($1 = 0.4846 Pound)

I thought this was an interesting article. Seems like he should be focusing his efforts on pressuring the Malay government, though.

welshgirlyUK · 11-22-2007, 12:34 PM

I hope this gets thrown out of court if this has to be paid for by tax payers money because what a waste. And the Queen?!? O-K

Quote:

Seeks British citizenship for the group.

If he's fighting for the culture of Malaysia (i might be mis- interpreting that) then what good is it going to do for the culture for the group to move to another country?

**sunnykerr** · 11-22-2007, 06:28 PM

Of course it will be thrown out of court. Just like efforts to seek financial restitution for decendants of slaves in the United States or financial restitution for Native Americans in North America in general will never be accepted by any court. We may recognize responsibility, and that's certainly not something to spit on, but there'll never be financial settlements. There would be too much to pay. And no judge wants to set that precedent.

It doesn't erase the fact that some really disgusting stuff and some bone-shakingly appalling stuff happened during the whole colonial era. And, in lots of different ways, we're all still living the consequences of those horrors. I obviously don't know much about this, but I'm convinced there is a link between colonialism and ethnic Indians having such a struggle in Malaysia. That's how colonialism worked. Divide and conquer.

And the consequences went on after the colonial powers left. Look at the genocide in Rwanda. Look at the massacres in East Timor. Look at the genocide going on right now in Darfur.

Financial restitution will never happen. But it's so easy for us all, who don't have to live daily within the world that colonialism created and bequeathed to innocent people, to forget how it clearly still governs a lot of people's lives.


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