MINORITY TRAVAILS
Aditi Bhaduri
The last couple of days a new
spectacle has invaded our homes – images of Malaysians of Indian origin
rioting, demanding their rights and equality under law in Malaysia.
Though this is the first time that the Indian media has devoted time and space
to the trials of ethnic Indians in other lands, the community has been
beleaguered for a long time. Discrimination against Indians, predominantly
Tamils and, as Dr. Waytha Moorthy,
Chairman of the Hindu Rights Action Force pointed out, specifically against
Hindus, has been a long on-going process in Malaysia.
Recently, just before Diwali, an old Hindu temple was demolished,
one of the hundreds in the recent past, and S. Samy Vellu the president of the Malaysian Indian Congress and
the only Indian Malaysian minister in the Malaysian cabinet had expressed his
disappointment.
Yet a few months before that, when
our media was agog with news of Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed in Glasgow and Dr. Haneef
Mohamed in Australi, a totally different event was
unfolding in Malaysia. Revathi Massosai,
32, a Hindu woman was giving interviews to the media and narrating the
harrowing weeks she had had to spend in an Islamic rehabilitation centre in
Malaysia for declaring herself a Hindu. Massosai,
born to Hindu parents who had converted to Islam, had been raised as a Hindu by
her grandmother. She married a Hindu man and when she went to register herself
as one, the authorities seized her and put her in detention for six months to
'rehabilitate' her to Islam. This news was tucked away in a small column in
major dailies. Obviously, no one thought much of it.
Muslims in Malaysia are a
majority and the tiny 8% Hindu minority there does not constitute any serious
threat to it. There are no Western imperialist assaults on Malaysia that
may justify such bizarre and cruel behaviour by
rational adults. But this is state policy in Malaysia, not the act of a deranged
individual. Under Malaysian law, anyone born to Muslim parents has to be a
Muslim and a Muslim cannot convert to another religion. Massosai
has been forced to live apart from her husband. Of course, she has not been the
first one to counter such persecution, there were others before her.
Discrimination against Malaysia 's Indian origin—mostly Tamil Hindu—population dates back
to the time of Malaysia's
independence in 1957. The Reid Commission report which laid the groundwork for
the Malaysian constitution had provided for the special position of the Malays
as the 'indigenous people' of the country, as opposed to Chinese and Indian
immigrants. Article 153 of the Constitution provided for affirmative action for
indigenous Malays, who form the majority of the Malaysian population—50% in
1957 and 60% now, and are all Muslims. Islam was proclaimed the state religion.
There were special privileges in education, jobs, businesses, and even
government contracts for Malays as 'bumiputeras'
—'sons of the soil' which, ironically, is a Sanskrit word. This discrimination
was further institutionalised under the New Economic
Policy that the country implemented in 1970. This turned Malaysia 'from an
economic backwater to an ASEAN powerhouse,' in the words of Abdul Rahman Embong, Professor of
Sociology of Development and Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of
Malaysian and International Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. But it also increased inter-Malay
inequality, alienating the Chinese and the far more marginalized and poorer
ethnic Indian community.
At the same time, under the
Sedition Act, 1971, it became seditious to question the preferential treatment
of Malays.
The Indian population meanwhile,
dwindled from 12% in 1987 to 8% now—immigration and conversion accounting for
most of it. 90% of Indian workers are low-skilled labourers
with little education, often treated with contempt by those in authority.
According to the Welfare and Research Foundation, Indians make up 5% of the
civil service now compared to 21.5 percent in 1969. Only about 1.2% percent of
corporate equity has been in the hands of Indians for the past three decades.
Added to it has been the steady Islamisation of Malaysia, a process begun with ex-Prime
Minister Mahathis Mohamed. Scores of Hindu temples
have been demolished, permits to build new ones are hard to get, the 888 Tamil
schools that existed in 1957 to serve a population of 600,000 then have come
down to 500 only, though the population has doubled. There have been many cases
of disputed conversions, and retreat of the minorities from the social and
public space of the country.
Farish Noor, a
Malaysian political scientist has gone on record to say the 'The idea of a
secular state is dead in Malaysia.' He has pointed out to the growing Islamisation of academics—on campus among students leading
to what he calls 'juvenile theocracy'.
Unfortunately, Malaysia is not
the only Muslim country, guilty of increasing Islamisation
and oppression of non-Muslim minorities living on its territory. Around the
Muslim world and the ummah we find minorities
oppressed, discriminated against, persecuted or just left to themselves.
Whether they are the Copts in Egypt,
or the Bahais in Iran
or the Hindus in Bangladesh,
the general scenario is dismal. They are systematically marginalised
in business, economics, commerce, trade and political life. The religious
tolerance of the Saudis is well-known and well-documented but the might of the petro-dollar overshadows that of the human rights lobby.
Magdy Khalil,
an Egyptian writer and analyst lamented last year that 'A survey of the present
situation of Christians living in the Middle East demonstrates a problematic
and distressing cycle: Arab Christian populations are declining, resulting in
an erosion of their political power, which in turn causes their conditions to
worsen and ultimately drives them out of their own homelands. This pattern is
repeated throughout the region.'
Egypt 's Copts have long complained of
discrimination, they are under-represented in the government, army and police,
there have been attacks on their churches, forced conversions, murders of
community members which have gone un-investigated.
During the last few decades, the
percentage of Palestinian Christians dropped from 17% to about 3% of the
Palestinian population in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian cause
has been turned into an Islamic cause, Palestinian businesses in the West Bank
have been targets of extortions by Islamic gunmen and Palestinians Christians
living in Jerusalem
privately admit that in any future settlement they would opt for Israeli
citizenship rather than a Palestinian one.
IN Lebanon ,
Christians represented 50-60% of the population prior to 1975; today this has
declined to about 30%, leading to a decrease in political influence and
participation by the community in Lebanon.
Even in secular Syria – itself ruled by an Allawite minority – the law of the land states that only a
Muslim can become the head of State. Syria is a country which boasts of
being home to one of the oldest living Christian traditions – the Syrian
Christians.
In Iran , the Bahai community, continues
to be suppressed religiously and politically, and is finding itself
increasingly demonised in the media. Last year, as
the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and
belief, Asma Jahangir had
expressed her 'concern' at the treatment of the Bahai
community in Iran.
Pakistan is famous for its 'Blasphemy
Laws' which have been used with impunity against its Christian and Hindu
minority communities
In a recent essay 'The Struggle
for Democracy in Bangladesh', academicians Amena Mohsin and Mehna Guhathakurta note that in Bangladesh 'The growth of
communal forces, attack on minorities, specially the Hindus, emergence of stunt
figures like Bangla bhai,
clandestine organizations like Hikmatul Jihad and the
attack on Ahmediyas are viewed with much concern.'
IN a world where voices against Islamophobia, not without cause, are quick to be raised, it
might make sense to keep in mind the words of Naeem Mohaiemen, a film-maker from Bangladesh, specialising on political Islam, 'The strange…thing is that
even hyper-minority status in other spaces (North America, Europe, India) have
not given the Muslim ummah an extra sensitivity, or
sense of responsibility, or even historical prerogative (think of the
Caliphate's decent track record vis-a-vis conquered non-converts)
on how it treats its own minorities …… with respect and equality. '