Challenges to the Rights of Malaysians of Indian Descent Conclusion In multicultural Malaysia, the Malays are politically dominant, the Chinese have the economic influence and the Indians have neither. Indians continue to be looked down upon and mantras like “the Malays are lazy, the Chinese are greedy and the Indians are cheats” are still a part of Malaysian lore, degrading each community. As long as Malay interests are going to be prioritized under the Malay hegemony model, it will be difficult for Indians to obtain a fair chance of development. However, there is a little hope from the Political Transformation Plan of Najib Razak, who is trying to regain the support of non-Malays, particularly Indians and Chinese, to secure his second consecutive term as Prime Minister. Under this plan, the Malaysian government has passed several bills related to civil liberties. Most recently, Najib has announced the National Harmony Act (2012), which will replace the age-old Sedition Act 1948. According to Prime Minister Najib, “the decision to replace the Sedition Act was made to find a mechanism that could determine the best balance between guaranteeing every citizen’s freedom of expression and the need to tackle the complex nature of the country’s multi-racial and multi-religious society” (New Straits Times 11July, 2012). Although Malaysia is a nation on the path of progress, it can neither ignore the violation of human rights nor appease the rising aspirations of contending identities for much longer. ______________________________________________________ Karmveer Singh is a Doctoral Candidate in the Southeast Asian Studies with a specialization in Malaysia at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He completed his M. Phil in the same specialization in 2010. His research interests include political Islam, human rights, Malaysian politics and foreign policy.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 10:25:45 +0000
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