Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim) today warned satellite television provider Astro that it would call for a boycott during the upcoming Deepavali festival unless it agrees to air a special news report on the situation of Indian Malaysians.

The report titled 'Indian Underclass?' was originally slated for broadcast on Sunday as a part of the weekly Focus Asia current affairs programme on Star TV.

However, it was cancelled since Astro found that the report could be "sensitive" to certain viewers.

Prim pro tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar said unless he received a response within 48 hours, the party would launch a boycott action against Astro during Deepavali which falls on Oct 24.

Astro has about one million subscribers and its Tamil-language channel Vaanavil is a hot favourite among the Indian Malaysian subscribers.

"We will send out notices via the short messaging service, e-mails, the media, etc calling for viewers to record their protest by tuning in to other channels such as RTM, TV3 and NTV7.

"We shall not be responsible for all and any losses to your advertisers, promoters or sponsors," he said in a letter addressed to the company's CEO, a copy of which was made available to malaysiakini.

Astro 'overreacted'

According to Uthayakumar, the "interference" by Astro has caused distress, anxiety and disappointment among Indian Malaysians who had looked forward to watching the report.

"The Indian Malaysian public wants to know the truth and they want confirmation that they are being treated as second class citizens. Astro has in fact cheated and misrepresented us," added the lawyer.

He said Astro should not "over-react" by telling the public which programmes were considered too 'sensitive'.

"If this report is not sensitive to Indian Malaysians who are the victims, then it cannot be sensitive to anyone else, let alone the people who are responsible for making them second class citizens," he said.

Uthayakumar also cautioned against the further misuse of the term 'sensitive' by certain quarters to hide the truth or silence legitimate opposition to state racism, suppression, oppression and marginalisation of the community.

Late response

Meanwhile, the Prim leader also complained of the slow response by the company when he attempted to find out the reasons for the cancellation of the programme.

He said he received a return call only four days from Astro despite making some 20 calls to the company.

When contacted, an Astro spokesperson said the company was unable to respond immediately to the demands made in the letter.

She said the company would revert to malaysiakini once a decision has been made by the management.

The controversial news report, which is available on Focus Asia's website focused on the status of Indian Malaysians and raised questions over their future as a community which has not received its fair share of the country's wealth and success.

In the days leading up to the scheduled broadcast of the programme, SMS messages had been circulating urging for members of the community to catch the report, causing much anticipation.

However, they were disappointed when the 30-minute broadcast was replaced by an episode from another programme.