KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, November 22, 2007: Malaysian police beefed up security around the capital on Thursday in what local media say is an attempt to foil a planned mass rally by ethnic Indians who feel they are being marginalized.The Sunday march, if it goes ahead, would be the country’s second street protest in a month. Indians, who form about eight percent of Malaysia’s 26 million people, say a decades-old affirmative action plan for the majority ethnic Malays has deprived them of opportunities, and the government has done little to improve living standards.
Defying a ban on public rallies, a Hindu rights group said it was gathering 10,000 Indians to rally outside the British embassy on Sunday since it was the former colonial ruler that had brought their ancestors to Malaysia to work as indentured laborers. Police set up roadblocks around the capital on Thursday, causing massive traffic jams, motorists said. The local Sun newspaper linked the security measure to Sunday’s protest. News agency Bernama quoted police chief Musa Hassan as saying that police would crack down on the rally. He said protesters were bent on using sensitive racial issues which could lead to clashes.
“We plan to go ahead with the rally on Sunday despite the police trying to prevent Indians from entering Kuala Lumpur,” Hindraf chairman, Waytha Moorthy, told Reuters. Moorthy recently filed a $4-trillion suit against the British government, accusing British officials of failing to honour their responsibility to protect ethnic Indians when they granted independence to Malaysia in 1957.