Malaysian minister tells CM of Tamil Nadu to mind his own business
Malaysian minister told the chief minister of Tamil Nadu on Thursday to mind his own business after he complained about Malaysia’s treatment of its ethnic Indians.
Ethnic Indian facing water jets being used by Malaysian police to control anti-government street protests in Kuala Lumpur, November 25, 2007.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, asked Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to intervene and protect the rights of Tamils.
He made the request after the minority community’s biggest anti-government protest in Malaysia at the weekend, sparked by anger over policies they say prevent ethnic Indians from getting decent jobs or a good education for their children.
“This is Malaysia, not Tamil Nadu,” Malaysia’s de-facto justice minister Nazri Aziz told Reuters by telephone. “This has got nothing to do with him … lay off.”
He said he had not seen a protest letter from Karunanidhi.
In the letter to Singh, Karunanidhi said he was “pained” at the way Malaysian police had treated Tamils when they organised a rally to complain of racial discrimination.
The rally, which drew more than 10,000 people, had triggered sporadic protests in Tamil Nadu, witnesses said.
Karunanidhi said Tamils were the largest group among Malaysia’s 1.8 million ethnic Indians and added that the people of Tamil Nadu were disturbed by the events there.
He sought Singh’s intervention “to end the sufferings and bad treatment of Malaysian Tamils”. Karunanidhi’s DMK party is an ally in Singh’s federal coalition.
On Thursday, parliamentarians from Tamil Nadu disrupted both houses of Indian parliament, demanding that New Delhi pressure Kuala Lumpur to protect ethnic Indians there.
Some MPs raised slogans against Malaysia and demanded the Indian foreign minister make a statement on the issue, forcing proceedings in the lower house to be suspended briefly.
“We have expressed our concern over the condition of Indian origin Tamils in Malaysia,” said D. Raja, a prominent communist MP. “They are subjected to repression and discrimination. They are fighting for equality with other sections of Malaysian people.”
Multi-racial Malaysia has brushed aside claims that it mistreated its ethnic Indians, saying that they were better off than those in India.
But ethnic Indians complain of a lack of educational and business opportunities, saying government affirmative-action policies that favour majority ethnic Malays had marginalised them. Source: in.reuters.com
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