TENTERA TIDAK 'BERKERJA' TERLIBAT SAMA

Saya ingin merakamkan kejadian pergaduhan kaum di KL di sini untuk diambil iktibar oleh semua kaum berbilang bangsa di Malaysia. Negara kita mengalami beberapa pergaduhan (selain 13 Mei 1969) sebelum ini tetapi tidak ada yang melibatkan begitu banyak penduduk (termasuk warga tentera) dan berakhir dengan kehilangan 3 nyawa (atau lebih?) hasil pertembungan konflik budaya.

Yang menariknya polis gagal meredakan keadaan pada awalnya. Sebanyak 35 orang ditahan, dimana 32 daripada mereka melayu. Dan tahanan ini termasuk lima warga tentera yang 'tidak berkerja'. Kaum India pula melaung kata-kata yang tidak enak kepada polis yang majoritinya melayu. Satu kumpulan warga India mengejar seorang warga Melayu dan merampas motosikalnya serta membakarnya betul-betul dihadapan polis.

BILA DUA MAJLIS BERPERASAAN BERTEMBUNGAN

Kejadian tersebut dikatakan bermula bila satu majlis perkahwinan orang melayu bertembung dengan majlis kematian orang India. Seorang warga India yang mabuk dikatakan naik minyak dan menendang kerusi-kerusi di majlis perkahwinan itu. Kita tertunggu-tunggu apakah kes ini akan berakhir di mahkamah atau didiamkan sahaja. Cuba titip beberapa kisah lama - kes diperapkan sahaja dengan alasan tidak ditemui dalangnya atau 'tiada apa-apa'. Tentu kita masih belum lupa satu kes pasangan suami isteri dibakar (hidup-hidup?) di dalam satu kontainer tetapi penjenayahnya tidak polis pula jumpa.

Pecahan utama bangsa yang mendiami Malaysia kini adalah:

55% Melayu, 10% Cina dan India 8%.

Tetapi anda jangan lupa ada lebih kurang 1.7 juta pendatang berdaftar di negara ini (7.7%) dan separuh tidak berpermit! Mereka datang kerana ada yang menjemput dan meraih keuntungan. Kemudian mereka dinyahkan keluar supaya datang semula untuk diterima kembali asalkan ada wang.

[Rujuk: KM2 3869, KM2 3861]

SELANGOR SEMAKIN DIHEMPAP MALANG

Khir Toyo menyebut perlunya diterangkan kawasan dan suasana dengan memasang lampu supaya lebih selamat adanya. Inilah malang kedua (atau lebih) buat negeri di bawah urus-tadbir Khir Toyo. Sebelum ini banjir aneh melanda Rawang dan kawasan sekitarnya. Jangan lupa banyak kilang elektronik juga berada di Selangor kini menghadapi masalah memasarkan barangan mereka ekoran lembabnya permintaan luar negara. Negeri Jepun sendiri sedang tercekik dengan masalah politik dan ekonomi dan kilang mereka juga ada di Selangor.

Kita mengimbau di negeri ini jugalah banyak 'rumah-haram' yang didiami oleh kaum Melayu dan India yang dhaif hidup mereka. Malah dua kaum ini jugalah yang begitu ramai berkerja di kilang-kilang elektronik di negeri Selangor sebagai buruh kasar atau operator.

Teringatlah akan penulis di bumi Selangor ini jugalah seorang mufti dibuang dan mereka yang melakukan kesalahan ugama diselamatkan. Apakah ini semua kejadian satu petanda bahawa kita dimurkai tuhan??

Kata orang hati tenang rasa senang. Tetapi hati yang geram akan meluahkan perasaan. Dan ini berlaku kerana ada yang menekan. Bila sudah tidak tahan ia akan memberontak dan menghasilkan ledakkan. Tidak guna mengawal keadaan dengan menutup lubang kerana banyak kenderaan berat meredah jalan. Mereka lalu-lalang kerana Umnolah yang selama ini memberi permit dan ruang. Penduduk Kampung Pandan tentu masih belum lupa seorang kanak-kanak mati digilis lori yang dikatakan ingin membawa satu kemajuan.....

- Kapal Berita-

10 March 07:05PM -- AP

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/breakingnews/story/0,1895,28884,00.html?

Source: STS Singapore Straits Times

Three dead in Malay-Indian clashes outside KL

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malay Muslims and ethnic Indians insulted and attacked each other on Saturday in townships on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, where the death toll from three days of clashes rose to three.

Police said the latest fatality, an Indian man, died of injuries in a hospital on Saturday afternoon. Details were not immediately available.

The government, seeking to calm passions, downplayed suggestions of a racial conflict but sent in reinforcements for the 400 officers who so far have been unable to contain the violence.

Mr Jamil Johari, the police deputy inspector-general, said that since Thursday, three people have been killed, three seriously injured and 11 hospitalised.

Thirty-five have been arrested, 32 of them Malays, he said. Those arrested included five off-duty soldiers.

'We will be extra vigilant at night, and I advise people not to congregate in large numbers,' he said. 'There is no need for a curfew at the moment.'

Many families were moving out of the area, which comprises five villages and is home to about 2,000 families, mostly poor labourers or squatters.

Police searched vehicles at roadblocks, confiscating machete-like weapons known as parangs, hockey sticks and iron staves. They geared up for another night of violence breaking out.

Despite the police presence, Malays and Indians hurled insults at each other and an Indian group chased a Malay man, seized his motorcycle and set it on fire.

Indians shouted at the predominantly Malay police, accusing them of not doing enough to halt the violence. All three people killed and the majority of injured have been Indians.

Local residents claimed the death toll was higher.

'Five people have died,' claimed an Indian woman who refused to give her name. 'The police are not doing anything to help us. They just tell us to wait in the house.'

The woman claimed that she saw a man being slashed and killed by a parang-wielding gang early on Saturday and that people screamed futilely for police to help him.

Janakan Pillai, 23, said from his hospital bed on Saturday that he had been beaten by about 40 Malay youths using hockey sticks and iron staves.

His aunt, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said Malay youths had threatened to burn down houses.

Malays accused Indians of lying in wait to attack them.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi urged people to ignore 'rumours'. The media were advised to report only police accounts.

'People are quick to jump to conclusion that it was a fight with racial connotations,' Mr Abdullah said. 'It could have been an altercation between individuals who happen to be of different races and religions.'

Veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang urged the Deputy Premier to go to the area himself to defuse the tensions and put together economic aid to redress the 'poverty and social backwardness in the area'.

The fighting had origins in a row last weekend between an Indian funeral procession and Malays celebrating a wedding. According to stories circulating in the area, a drunken Indian man kicked over a chair at the Malay party, leading to the fighting. -- AP

http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/mar/10malay.htm

3 Indians killed in clashes in Malaysia

The death toll from three days of clashes between Malay Muslims and ethnic Indians rose to three, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, on Saturday.

Police said an Indian man died of injuries in hospital.

Malaysia's ethnic Indians, who were originally brought as plantation labourers now comprise about 10 per cent of the country's 22 million population, but are among its poorest citizens and politically marginalised, according to political observers.

Malays and Indians insulted each other and an Indian group chased a Malay man, seized his motorcycle and set it ablaze, despite police presence.

Indians claim the predominantly Malay police are not doing enough to stop the violence. All the three killed and most of those injured have been Indians.

Agencies

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20010310/wl/malaysia_clashes_dc_2.html

Saturday March 10 10:39 AM ET

Malaysian Police on Guard After Racial Clashes

By Marty Logan

PETALING JAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - Hundreds of red-helmeted riot police guarded housing areas in this Kuala Lumpur suburb late on Saturday after three people died in racial clashes during the week.

Initial skirmishes broke out last Sunday when members of a Hindu funeral procession passed through a Malay wedding party instead of following an agreed-upon alternative route, a leading Hindu leader told Reuters.

The government has played down a racial element in the clashes and asked the media not to publish ``inaccurate news'' which could worsen the situation.

``I hope no one will take advantage of the prevailing situation to cause further trouble and make matters worse,'' Bernama quoted Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi as saying.

Police said three people died after clashes on Thursday night between minority Indians and majority Malays over a smashed car windshield. After an initial skirmish, a group armed with machetes, sticks and iron pipes attacked residents of several blocks of flats in the area.

Hundreds were involved in the fighting, police added.

Seventy people have been detained and several injured, the official Bernama news agency quoted police as saying.

Malays total about 55 percent of the country's population, Chinese 10 percent and ethnic Indians about eight percent. While Indians are well represented in the professional classes they are also among the poorest and most marginalized in Malaysian society.

The stability of Malaysia's political system rests on a coalition of parties representing different ethnic groups.

Many fear instability could trigger race riots like those which erupted in 1969 when opposition parties, notably ethnic Chinese, dented the ruling coalition's margin in elections.