Daily Archives: July 28th, 2008

Indian Thugs In Klang

It is scary is it not. I hope the Klang Police will act. I hope Charles Santiago will comment more on his blog.

Malay Mail

Klang MP’s car damaged
By PHILIP ANDREW

Fighting crime is not about deploying more cops and building police stations but about the need to eradicate poverty

Charles Santiago, Klang MP
“CRIME in Klang is serious and everyone is living in fear,” Klang MP Charles Santiago told participants at a Crime Forum in Dewan Hamzah Klang on Saturday and about five hours later, he found his car had been set on by thugs.

The incident occurred at 12.15am near a temple in Jalan Kem, Port Klang.

Santiago had been invited to the Sri Muniandy Temple’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

He said as he and his two assistants were leaving after the function they saw 12 thugs near his car.

“As soon as they saw us they made a commotion and pushed my personal assistant, a woman.

I intervened and they kept hurling abuses and behaving in a threatening manner.

“The temple’s committee members and devotees came to our aid and the presence of plainclothes policemen prevented further ugly scenes.” Santiago only realised that the side mirror of his car had been smashed after the thugs left.

When the Malay Mail visited him yesterday, he said that he had brought up the seriousness of crime in Klang and that some of the thugs, especially those from the Indian community had lost all hope.

“It has come to a point that prison does not bother them anymore,” he said with a sigh.

“I have raised this issue in Parliament twice and the Home Minister has told us that more police officers will be deployed to handle the situation; but my question is how long have we to wait again.

“Fighting crime is not about deploying more cops and building police stations but about the need to eradicate poverty.”

Four Indian Political Parties – Malaysia

There are four political parties in Malaysia who cater for the two million people of Indian origin in Malaysia. Leading the group is of course MIC, followed by IPF or Indian Progressive Front, PPP, People’s Progressive Party and finally MIUP or Malaysian Indian United Party.

Besides three of the parties that solely claim support from the Indians, PPP is supposed to be for all Malaysians, although the party has an Indian background of – 7 Presidents including the present are Indians. Even the Supreme body of this has more Indians that others although the party is supposed to be made of 48% Indians, 32% Chinese and 13% Malays and the rest of other ethnicity.

MIC is led by the evergreen Samy Vellu, IPF by Jayashree wife of the late M G Pandithan, PPP by Kayveas and K.S.Nallakarupan heads the MIUP.

MIC has a long history dating back to 1946, and so does PPP which originated in 1953. Pandithan’s party: Pandithan’s name will be there for a long time, he being the founder.  IPF originated sometime in 1990 and MIUP was a late starter in 2007.

MIC and PPP were formed with original objectives and truly stand out as strong parties in the political arena, PPP once nearly took over the Perak State Government in the days of the Seenivasagam brothers of Ipoh. The brothers were real giants both in Parliament and the courts – they were lawyers.

MIC and PPP experienced defeats, that nobody ever imagined, in the last elections, and political observers comment they may become extinct if no remedial action is taken by the leaders.

Pandithan started his IPF when Samy Vellu sacked him from MIC.

K.S, Nalla had a tiff with Anwar and started his own party.

Having said all these, I am curious to know how many Indians are card carrying members of the above parties. MIC claims it has 630,000 members, IPF claims 380,000 members, PPP has 300,000 members and 3000 branches, whereas MIUP sits there with 250,000 members.

Are all these figures correct or are they fictitious numbers indicating the delusions of grandeur by the leaders. I meet quite a number of Indians and find rarely any one coming forward to claim membership in any one of the four parties. For me this large group of members in the Indian political parties may be having a cult culture, secrecy everywhere, special symbols and maybe even secret initiating ceremonies. It is a mystery for me.