A Malaysian Indian activist P. Uthayakumar on Sunday led a gathering of protesters outside the party-office of the Opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, in Kuala Lumpur, over the issue of minority rights. Protesting against the alleged failure of the opposition alliance, Pakatan Rakyat (PR), to address the problems of Malaysian Indians, the demonstrators demanded that Tamil schools, numbering several hundred, be granted land.
The protest was timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the Pakatan Rakyat in a few states in the last general election. Mr. Uthayakumar, Secretary -General of the not-yet-recognised Human Rights Party of Malaysia, said over the telephone from Kuala Lumpur that the schools could become state-aided institutions only upon being granted land at the provincial level. Land matters “fall under the exclusive purview of the state governments”, he said, justifying the protest against the national-opposition parties which were now in power in some provinces.
He said the Hindu Rights Action Force, which supported the PR during the last general election, was now left with no choice but to protest. On whether schools with any other Indian language as the medium of instruction were being treated differently, Mr. Uthayakumar indicated that a number of Telugu schools had now ceased to exist.
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