Malaysia is a successful model among developing countries. For this, recognition must go to the people of Malaysia for their tolerance, sacrifice and contributions.

The policies of positive discrimination for the ethnic Malay community, since the racial riots of 1969 have been a success.

However, these policies have created serious racial polarisation and eroded the fundamental liberties to equality in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres of all other Malaysian communities

Grim reminder

The ethnic clash in Kampung Medan near Kuala Lumpur o­n March 8, 2001 is a specific and grim reminder of the present state of our inter-ethnic relations.

This violence, which occurred over a period of 15 days, took the lives of six innocent people and maimed over 40 others, the majority of whom were Indian Malaysians. A few were Malays.

The episode revealed the fragile state of race relations and, to some extent, the inability of the state to manage racial violence.

We are deeply concerned that the continuing government policies are marginalising and alienating the Indian Malaysians and other minority communities from the mainstream of development.

The communal political system tends to interpret national problems as communal problems, internal to the community concerned, leading to the conclusion that problems are within the community and thus requiring solutions from within the community.

Inadvertently or otherwise, this communal political system also has driven private and public enterprises to become racist. Stereotyping of races and the discrimination against o­ne another has become a norm.

Poverty groups

The poor are the first victims of this process - they have become vulnerable to any and all issues that threaten race relations.

This is a violation of Article 4.1 of the UN Declaration o­n Minority Rights which demands that the State ensures full and effective exercise of all human rights and fundamental freedom without any discrimination and in full equality before the law.

Yet, the plantation community is still trapped in the colonial daily rated wage system. Their real wages have stagnated for more than 30 years, while the country's GDP has grown in leaps and bounds.

They face forceful displacement from plantations without adequate compensation and housing. They have been recognised as a poverty group in most policy documents, but are still denied any meaningful State intervention.

This violates Article 4.5 of the UN Declaration o­n Minority Rights, which requires the State to consider appropriate measures that enable full participation to persons belonging to minority groups, in the economic progress and development of the country.

Language switch

In 2003, the Malaysian government switched the teaching of two important subjects - Science and Mathematics - from mother-tongue language to the English language in primary schools.

There is concern that this language switch would be detrimental to poor children of all communities, specifically the Tamil community.

The history and the relevance of Tamil schools must be located in the context of the socio-economic status of the Tamil plantation workers in the country.

The Tamil school system was established to provide basic education for plantation workers' children, an economically weak and socially marginalised group. For this group of children, education is perceived as the o­nly avenue for upward mobility.

Their socio-cultural identity, psychological mind-set and worldview is organised and influenced by the Tamil language. In fact it is through the Tamil language that these children perceive, process, and relate to the environment around them.

Over the last 10 years, Tamil schools have shown impressive improvements in performance in their assessment examinations. This clearly points to the fact that the children in their formative years can learn and acquire knowledge best in their mother tongue.

The teaching of Science and Mathematics in the English language, a foreign language to 90,000 children in Tamil schools, would reverse these positive trends.

Thus the government's move has the inadvertent but real potential of further marginalising the Tamil community, leading to loss of its language and identity.

This language switch is a violation of Article 1.1 and 4.3 of the UN Declaration o­n Minorities, which creates an obligation o­n the state to protect the linguistic identity and to encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity and to provide adequate opportunities to learn and to have instruction in mother tongue.

Furthermore, it challenges the protection given by Article 152 of the Federal Constitution, which guarantees the use and study of the language of (any) other community in the Federation.

This is also a violation of Article 29(1)(a) of the Convention o­n the Rights of the Child, as it denies the type of education that would target fullest development of the abilities of children.

In view of the above, The Group of Concerned Citizens hereby calls upon the government of Malaysia to:

1) Review the communal based political system and government policies;

2) Implement affirmative action programmes for the plantation community; and

3) Re-examine implementation of the language switch to teach Science and Mathematics in English language in all affected schools.


Social activist ARUMUGAM KALIMUTHU, representing Group of Concerned Citizens, an advocacy group of the Indian Malaysians, read out this statement at the working group of minorities of the United Nations Commission o­n Human Rights' sub-commission o­n the promotion and protection of minorities in Geneva o­n May 12.