AFTER ONE DAY of anti-discrimination protest staged by the ethnic Indian community, which accounts 8per cent of Malaysian population, the protesters claimed victory on Monday when the sedition charges leveled against three of them were dropped by a Malaysian court. More than 1,000 activists carried three freed activists out of the courthouse on their shoulders.

Earlier on Sunday, Malaysia’s Indian community had staged its biggest-ever anti-government protest and more than 10,000 protesters defied tear gas and water cannons to fight against racial discrimination in the country. The protesters brought Kuala Lumpur to a standstill for almost six hours in the name of Queen Elizabeth II. They staged protest near Kuala Lumpur’s iconic Petronas Twin Towers and later clashed with police, which used their batons to beat protesters.

The protesters wanted to hand over a memorandum, which was signed by thousands of ethnic Indians, to Queen Elizabeth II. They urged the Queen to appoint a counsel to represent them in a class action suit against the British government that had brought Indians to the then Malaya as ’bonded labourers’ and exploited them. The protesters, mostly ethnic Tamils laborers brought to Malaysia from South India, demanded that the British government to pay about $4 trillion in damages in concurrence for what they called as the ‘150 years of exploitation’ of ethnic Indians.

P Uthaya Kumar, organizer of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), said that Malaysian Indians have never gathered in such large numbers in this way. They were frustrated due to no job opportunities in the government or the private sector. They were not given business licences or places in university. He also said that Indians were also incensed by some recent demolitions of Hindu temples in the country.

The workers of an alliance of opposition parties and some civil society groups were also participating in the anti-government protest staged by ethnic Indians. They were chanting slogans for ‘election reform and justice’ as well. Parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said at the palace gates before delivering a petition to the king that the Malaysian people must be allowed to express their opinions and views freely. At the same time, the New York-based Human Rights Watch has also slammed the government’s stand against the mass rally and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s step to suppress the protest. It said that vote buying and use of public resources by the ruling parties have sullied elections in Malaysia. It also blamed of the Election Commission for adapting biased steps during elections.  

Protests are uncommon in Malaysia and the last major rally was seen in 1998 when the ‘Reformasi’ movement had erupted after Anwar’s sacking. Anwar, who was perceptible successor to former PM Mahathir Mohamad until 1998 when he was sacked and jailed under the charges of sodomy and corruption, had chanted slogan of ‘Reformasi’ or ‘Reform’. He declared that the people wanted free and fair elections in the country. Later, the sodomy conviction leveled against him overturned but the corruption verdict barred him from standing for public office till April 2008. Elections might be held in early next year.

However, the mainstream political parties disassociated themselves from the Sunday rally by terming it as illegal gathering. They also claimed that the rally was opposition party’s strategy to smear image of the government before the general elections. The Malaysian government had even warned that it would not hesitate to invoke the country’s strict security laws allowing detentions without trial on those people involved in such rallies.

Now, the Malaysian court has been ordered to free the three members of Hindraf, who were charged with sedition earlier in November, on technical grounds. The Police had arrested them on Friday under the charge of the Sedition Act for the speeches they delivered on November 16. According to the laws, sedition is punishable by three years in prison and a fine in Malaysia.