Two persons were arrested today at a gathering to protest against People's Progressive Party (PPP) president M Kayveas's recent call to close Tamil schools.

However, police held them for o­nly a few hours. They were released at 6.15 this evening.

The gathering, held at a Hindu temple in Batu Caves, was also organised in conjunction with the Tamil new year of Subaanu tomorrow.

About 500 people attended the event which started at 11am. The event was organised by a Tamil education group called Seremban Action Team. It had brought two busloads of people from Seremban for this event.

The crowd was also told that Kayveas had promised to turn up an hour later.

Invitation

Among political leaders present were DAP Selangor chairperson M Manoharan, Prim pro tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar, Keadilan Selangor deputy chairperson P Krishnasamy and party supreme council member N Gobalakrishnan.

Last week, they had openly extended an invitation to Kayveas to debate o­n the future of Tamil schools at the gathering.

At 12.45pm, the crowd was angered by Kayveas' absence and took out an effigy of Kayveas which they had earlier prepared with newspapers.

While the leaders were giving speeches, the crowd threw the effigy o­n the ground and stepped o­n it before they set it o­n fire.

Police officers who were watching from afar then ordered the crowd to disperse.

When they refused, the police arrested two persons K Rajasekaran and M Kanayyah at about 1pm.

Meanwhile, malaysiakini made several attempts to contact Kayveas for comments today but he could not be reached.

Two weeks ago, the local government and housing deputy minister reportedly told a Chinese newspaper that the government should close Tamil primary schools to facilitate a better future for Indian Malaysian children.

He said this was essential to improve the socio-economic standing of the Indian community, most of whom are living in poverty.

Following this, several police reports were lodged against Kayveas for making seditious remarks regarding the constitutionally-guaranteed mother tongue education.

The deputy minister has denied making such statements, saying that he was misquoted by the Chinese daily.

He put forward a proposal last week to launch a campaign to improve the conditions and facilities of Tamil schools.

There are some 520 Tamil schools with over 90,000 students. Many of the schools are located in estates under a system introduced during British colonial rule.

Indian Malaysians make up about nine percent of the country's 22.2 million population. It is the third largest ethnic group after Malay (about 58 percent) and Chinese Malaysians (about 28 percent).