Sunanda K Datta-Ray: A bleak Diwali

WHERE MONEY TALKS

Malaysia's two million-plus Hindus are mourning the destruction of an old temple.

The festival of lights may be a festival of darkness for Malaysia's more than two million Hindus, mainly descendants of plantation workers with a scattering of white-collar migrants, who are mourning the demolition of an old temple. What causes dismay is how quickly their leader was persuaded to withdraw even the muted protest he was planning with no word of apology from any leader of what is still portrayed as a "moderate" Muslim nation.

I mean the controversial Samy Vellu "" Datuk Seri Samy Vellu Sangalimuthu "" Malaysia's Minister for Public Works and honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman. With hundreds of temples razed to the ground in the last 15 years and at least seven since February, he plucked up the courage to warn recently that Malaysian Indian Congress members would celebrate Diwali privately this year. They would not keep open house for other communities.

"It is to mark MIC's respect for Hindus who are saddened by the demolition of the Maha Mariamman temple in Padang Jawa, Shah Alam, Selangor," he announced, saying the demolition had hurt Hindu feelings. It seemed a dignified token protest but even that was not tolerated. Abdullah Badawi (in the picture), the prime minister, told last Monday's annual assembly of the United Malay Nationalist Organisation, which leads Malaysia's 14-party ruling coalition, that he was "very disappointed" and would not hesitate to "take action" against "troublemakers." Some of his 2,000 listeners yelled "Sack him!" referring to Vellu.

That was enough. But though Vellu promptly backtracked, the matter may not easily die down. Jawaharlal Nehru used to quote Sartre on France and its Jews to say that the most dangerous communalism was that of the majority. It's not only the Islamist Parti Islam SeMalaysia that has ruled Kelantan for 18 years and also held power for a while in neighbouring Trengganu state. It's the top-down mood in the country as a whole. Though the constitution's Article 3(1) says "other religions may be practised in peace and harmony," Article 121(1A) subordinates the judicial system to Islamic courts.

Apparently, even non-Muslim policewomen have been ordered to wear the veil (tudung) and clerics have branded chopsticks unIslamic. Over-zealous religious police once hauled to prison an American couple suspected of the crime of khalwat (proximity). The religious police is everywhere pleaded the Malaysian army officer I once invited to a drink in my Kuala Lumpur hotel. It's a far cry from the relaxed days of Malaysia's first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, son of the Sultan of Kedah and a Thai princess, who made no bones of his liking for Scotch. He did say his prayers though, and our agnostic M C Chagla had to invent an excuse when visiting Malaysia to avoid being dragged to the mosque by the Tunku.

Islamisation began with the subsequently disgraced Anwar Ibrahim mobilising Muslim youth for political purposes. He says he wanted to establish Islamic values, not "Arabisation." But his prime minister, Mahathir Mohamed, a man of Malayali descent, took up the cause, and Hindus and to a lesser extent (since they are richer) Chinese have since been victims of competitive Islam.

By "troublemakers" Badawi probably meant the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), an umbrella group of 30 organisations, that sued the British government in August for $4 trillion for 50 years of marginalisation of ethnic Indians by the colonial administration and UMNO. Hindraf could have added also by some ethnic Indian leaders who are anxious to curry favour with the majority community and feather their nests.

The implementation of Article 121(1A) is the last straw. Every so often a Hindu family is plunged into despair with the mullahs claiming that the father or mother converted to Islam, possibly when dying. There is no redress against their ex parte verdict as was highlighted with the forced burial of a 36-year-old Tamil Hindu soldier and mountaineer, M Moorthy, as a Muslim, over the protests of his Hindu wife. Judge Mohamed Raus Sharif ruled that once the Sharia court had unilaterally decided he was Muslim, the civil courts had no jurisdiction to hear the widow's appeal.

Indigenous Malays, nearly all Muslim, constitute 60 per cent of Malaysia's 27 million population, while Chinese, who are mostly Buddhists, make up 25 per cent, and the largely Hindu Indians another 8 per cent. Indian Muslims try to identify with Malays. Many Chinese send their children to school in Singapore where they also bank their savings. Singapore's veteran Lee Kuan Yew periodically speaks up for them.

No one does for Malaysia's Indians. With the lowest income and education level and the highest drop-out and drugs figures, they have nowhere to go. This week has shown how easily cowed their only leader is, despite being a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, with honours and decorations from India, Italy, Korea, Britain, Australia and of course Malaysia, as well as MIC president since 1979.

Across the Causeway, Little India is ablaze with Diwali lights and Singapore's President S R Nathan is hosting a dinner to celebrate "Deeparaya" "" Singapore's ecumenical mix of Deepavali and Hari Raya, the local name for Eid. But it's a bleak Diwali for Malaysia's Hindus.

sunanda.dattaray@gmail.com