KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz was shocked during a recent work trip to India to find a newspaper there carrying a front page article that claimed that Malaysia was practising apartheid against Hindus.
Holding up the DNA newspaper of Nov 28, the International Trade and Industry Minister said that the article quoted a 22-year-old Sri Lankan-born poet who had spent 17 years in Malaysia, as saying that she fled Malaysia last month to escape “systematic racial harassment.”
“Fleeing Malaysia? Oh my goodness gracious. Can you imagine? This is really telling lies,” Rafidah told reporters yesterday after chairing a Wanita Umno meeting.
The Wanita Umno chief said that the poet, Sharanya Manivannan, had also claimed in the article that there had been cases in Malaysia of “body-snatching” of Hindu corpses by the authorities so that the deceased could be buried according to Muslim rites.
She said that the poet, however, had never mentioned that these men had converted to Islam.
Rafidah added that Sharanya had said in the article that “countless (Hindu) temples have been demolished and idols smashed – oftentimes in the middle of prayer sessions and devotees attacked”.
“What a lie. Words like this are terrible. The article really hurts,” she said.
Rafidah was heading a trade mission to India from Nov 26 to Dec 1 when she came across the newspaper article at one of the five-star hotels there.
“I was shocked. Obviously there is already an international network set up,” she said, adding that she believed that this was politically motivated.
During the mission to New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai, the minister said she was asked once or twice about the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) Nov 25 demonstration in Kuala Lumpur.
She said she explained that it was untrue that Hindus were being marginalised in Malaysia, adding that Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) director-general Datuk R. Karuna Karan, who accompanied her on the trade mission, was himself a Malaysian Hindu.
“He (Karuna) is a perfect example of those who get to the top. He’s not there by chance. MIDA is the organisation we put our trust in to get billions in investments.
“And Datuk Karuna is the chief because he’s the best,” she said, adding that his predecessor too was a Hindu.
Rafidah slammed Hindraf for using religion for its political purposes.
She said that if there were groups that felt sidelined, they should use the proper channels to let the Government know their grievances in black-and-white, rather than taking it to the streets and to the Queen of England.
Hindraf has filed a US$4 trillion (RM13.5 trillion) suit in London, claiming the British is to blame for the marginalisation of Indians in Malaysia, as they had brought them to the then Malaya as indentured labourers and exploited them.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the system of democracy practised in Malaysia, though dissimilar to that in the other democratic nations, is fair and transparent.
“Our democracy is founded on our history, cultural values and our traditions.
“The important thing is that we give every citizen the right to fairly elect anyone they wish to make up the Government,” he said in the Bicarawara interview programme on RTM1 last night.
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