KEADAAN SOSIO-EKONOMI YANG PARAH

Berikut beberapa berita yang dikutip dari beberapa laman mengenai tragedi Kg Medan. Keadaan persekitaran yang teruk, kadar pengangguran yang tinggi dan tahap kemiskinan yang meningkat serta kemunculan kumpulan samseng turut menyumbang kepada ketegangan.

Samada India atau Melayu - mereka hidup tertekan di dalam kekecewaan di rumah-rumah setinggan kerana tidak mampu membiayai hidup yang lebih selesa. Terdapat 1,000 penduduk melayu dan india di 6 buah perkampungan setinggan di sini.

Komen:

Inilah kesan dari pembangunan yang tidak seimbang walaupun ini satu kawasan yang diwakili oleh Umno. Mungkin yang berkesan hanyalah ucapan mandi darah oleh Khir Toyo yang kini menjelma di pinggir Klang lama. Malangnya dia tidak pula dikenakan akta hasutan kerana menyebutnya.

Semua manusia mempunyai perasaan. Jika ia tidak dilayan ia akan memberontak dari dalam. Dan itu hanya memerlukan sedikit sahaja percikkan. Setakat ini Mahathir begitu banyak meminyakkan keadaan. Dia pernah mencemarkan perutusan kemerdekaan dengan tuduhan ekstrim kepada beberapa kumpulan.

BERBUAL PUN BOLEH KENA ISA JUGA

Sudah enam orang maut - 5 India dan 1 Melayu. Banyak laman tidak melapurkan satu melayu yang terkorban itu. Menurut sumber BA pula bilangan yang mati adalah 10 India, 1 Melayu dan 1 Indonesia. Polis sudah bising dan mungkin akan mendakwa pemimpin BA kerana mengeluarkan lapuran bercanggah ini. Timbalan KPN/IGP menyebut akta ISA akan digunakan kepada sesiapa yang menyebar khabar angin. Menurut Reuters, bilangan yang dinyatakan oleh polis adalah tepat. (Ehem.... doktor pun cari makan)

Jumlah yang ditangkap setakat ini adalah 190 orang, dimana 2 darinya kerana menyebarkan kabar angin. Jumlah yang tercedera pula adalah seramai 52 orang. Seramai 23 orang sedang dirawat di hospital.

Komen:
Ini bermakna ada SB berkeliaran di sana dan di hospital juga. Ada lima tentera tertangkap. Cuba periksa tarikhnya.

CERAMAH SEMAKIN TIADA

Polis kini tidak membenarkan sebarang ceramah diadakan di negeri Selangor. Jangan lupa negeri Selangor tidak membenarkan penceramah BA memberi kuliah ugama di surau sejak Khir Toyo berkuasa.

Komen:
Ada banyak kes guru al Quran yang mengajar membaca dan tajwid sahaja dibuang kerana pegangan politik yang berbeda. Kekurangan bimbingan ugama turut menyumbang kerosakkan. Kalau dulu muda-mudi ke surau waktu malam kini mereka berpelseran kerana ceramah tajaan kerajaan membosankan.

ORANG LUAR PUNYA ANGKARA?

Menurut DSWA, kumpulan yang menyerang itu datang dari LUAR dan tidak diKENALI. Gopalakrishnan juga menyebut sedemikian. Kumpulan luar inilah yang lebih banyak bertanggungjawab melakukan serangan. BA mengutuk sikap polis yang tidak bersungguh menjaga keadaan dari awal.

Satu rencana Reuters menyebut kebimbangan seorang pak cik tua melayu akan adanya orang luar yang membuat kacau di sana.

[Some Malay residents say they feared for their lives. "We are afraid of outsiders coming here to create trouble," said 51-year-old Hamid Jamil ]

Sila rujuk lapuran Reuters :

http://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/2001/03/14/for03.html

Komen:
Semakin lama semakin banyak kes sedangkan polis semakin ada. Mengambil kesempatan adalah tektik lama seseorang perancang. Mereka cuma memerlukan satu keadaan yang sesuai untuk memulakan gerakan. Kenapa banyak kes berlaku waktu malam? Dan kenapa polis tidak memberi satu kenyataan LENGKAP yang boleh membuang semua khabar yang melayang?

LAMAN PRO REFORMASI SEMAKIN MENJADI TUMPUAN?

Saya perhatikan terdapat kunjungan mendadak di laman pro reformasi akhir-akhir ini. Persitiwa Kg Medan menyebabkan pemburu maklumat memasukki internet kerana bahan yang tercatat pada akhbar tidak memuaskan. Para penulis laman web perlu mengambil kesempatan ini untuk menulis sesuatu yang berkesan. Mungkin mereka nanti akan menjadi pengunjung laman yang berkekalan. Inilah satu rahmat yang tidak harus dipandang ringan. Reformasi bukan sekadar mengutip berita penganiayaan kepada Anwar sahaja. Tetapi untuk semua kaum yang teraniaya kerana perangai syaitan yang berada di dalam diri manusia. Reformasi datang untuk mengnyahkan semuanya.

KREDIBILITI PAK LAH TERCABAR JUGA

Sekali lagi kredibiliti Pak Lah tergugat. Polis diberitakan tidak memandang serius kejadian ini. Dia sewajarnya menghadirkan diri setiap hari. Rasa takut masih terasa kerana semakin ramai menjadi mangsa. Menutup berita hanya akan menggelisahkan lagi rakyat yang semakin tertanya-tanya. Kerajaan sebenarnya menggalakkan khabar angin bertiup juga kerana tidak menyalurkan berita yang lengkap untuk semua. Inilah kerajaan yang menyebarkan khabar Anwar melakukan jenayah sedangkan bangunan ia berlaku tiada. Mungkin polis perlu bertindak kepada bekas peguam negara dan semua pendakwa DSAI kerana berkhabar angin juga..... dan ini termasuk Mahathir juga kerana dia terlalu percaya sehingga menghebahkannya - seolah-olah dialah pendakwa dan hakim negara.

-TJr Kapal Berita-

http://livenews.lycosasia.com/sg/lv3_5_9.html

More arrests in wake of Malaysian race attacks

By Jalil Hamid

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Police arrested seven people in connection with bloody weekend clashes between Indian and Malay residents south of the capital Kuala Lumpur, taking the total apprehended to 190, authorities said on Tuesday.

Police patrolled the streets of the troubled neighbourhood where six people died in Malaysia's worst racial violence in more than 30 years. Residents said there were no signs of trouble overnight.

"We will be making a few more arrests," Nik Ismail Nik Yusoff, Selangor state police chief, told reporters at a hospital treating victims of the communal fighting.

He said the latest arrests overnight included two people suspected of rumour mongering, which police could deem an offence under the Malaysia's wide-ranging Internal Security Act.

Nearly 150 of those arrested are being held under remand for two to 13 days and could be charged with illegal assembly and possessing weapons.

Groups wielding stocks, machetes and pipes roamed the Taman Desaria neighbourhood of Petaling Jaya at the height of the violence.

The neighbourhood is known for its violent crime and gangs.

Nik Ismail said the Selangor police would not issue any state permits for assemblies or gatherings for the time being.

The clashes between members of the two ethnic groups was sparked by a row involving a Malay wedding party and a Hindu funeral procession.

Four Indians, a Malay and an Indonesian died in the fighting.

Most victims were hacked or bludgeoned to death.

Police said 23 people were still in hospital on Tuesday. One was in intensive care.

Opposition politicians have cast doubt on the government's account of the number of dead and wounded, but a hospital doctor told Reuters the figures given were correct.

Police said a fire that swept through four adjoining houses belonging to Malays in the troubled neighbourhood on Monday night was caused by an electrical fault and no one was injured.

The poor area is divided into pockets of almost exclusively Indian and Malay communities.

Indians make up just eight percent of Malaysia's 22 million people, Chinese 30 percent and Malays and other indigenous people make up the rest.

While Indians are well represented in the professional classes they are also among the poorest and most marginalised in Malaysian society.

Source: The South China Morning Post, HK 14th March 2001

Poverty shows no discrimination in slums

SEAN YOONG of Associated Press in Taman Desaria, Malaysia

Flies hover over rotting coconut husks strewn across a dump site barely 60 metres from where 1,000 ethnic Malay and Indian villagers live cramped together in six communal houses.

Poverty among the residents of the rough-hewn buildings of Taman Desaria and the almost 10,000 other residents of five villages on the southwestern edge of the capital is the backdrop to the worst ethnic violence Malaysia has seen in more than three decades.

After six people were killed and scores wounded in four days of sporadic fighting by gangs using weapons ranging from homemade bombs to swords and iron pipes, people here feel that survival is everything that matters. "My father won't let me go out to work today," said Chandra Sandragasan, a 23-year-old ethnic Indian factory hand, the day after the fighting was quelled by the deployment of hundreds of riot police to the area. "He's frightened of our Malay neighbours. He thinks they might try to kill me."

Only a week ago, such fears would not have been taken seriously. But now many Malaysians are concerned that the lid has come off simmering ethnic tensions in Malaysia, and that the violence could spread.

Malaysia is a country fearful of racial conflict. In schools, history books remind students that Malays, who comprise about 60 per cent of Malaysia's 22 million people, must live in unfettered harmony with the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, the descendants of 19th-century labourers brought in to work tin mines and rubber plantations. Otherwise, the textbooks warn, race riots between ethnic Malays and ethnic Chinese that killed hundreds of people in Kuala Lumpur in 1969 could recur and devastate Malaysia's social stability and plunge its economy into recession.

The national Government's response to the latest fighting has been to deny that race is an element. "It is not like what happened in Indonesia," Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Saturday.

It is true that tensions between ethnic groups in Malaysia - where stable governance under Dr Mahathir for almost 20 years has left it one of the richest countries in Southeast Asia - pale in comparison to Indonesia, and that the recent fighting has not affected Malaysia's overall stability. But few people outside the Government say that race issues played no part in the Kuala Lumpur violence.

Rumours about the origins of the clashes abound. The most popular revolves around an Indian funeral procession and Malays celebrating a marriage. A drunken Indian man kicked over a chair at the wedding, raising Malay fury, according to the theory. "I live here and I don't know what to believe," said Malay resident Abdul Rahman Faizal, 45. "Yesterday, somebody told me that one Indian woman and her daughter were killed. But I think these are all lies, meant to create more anger and violence."

Of the six people police have confirmed were killed, five are Indians. Among the 52 people listed as injured, Indians outnumber Malays by five to one.

Ethnic Indians make up eight per cent of the population, and many of them are much poorer than the Malays, who benefit from affirmative-action programmes instituted after the 1969 riots, and the Chinese, who have dominated the economy for decades.

The mix is generally true for Kuala Lumpur's poor suburbs. Some residents say Malays are fed up with Indians, whom they claim have ruined the area with prostitution, gambling and drinking - which are forbidden by Islam. But in Taman Desaria, both races share similar problems. Unemployment is high, and criminal gangs do not discriminate. Water supply is often disrupted. Flash floods sweep through the neighbourhood after heavy downpours. The drains are clogged with filth, while the streets are narrow and filled with potholes.

"There is so much frustration on both sides in this area," said Syed Husin Ali, a prominent human rights activist and opposition leader. Unless all residents saw positive social and economic developments, poverty and frustration would breed anger that could be expressed as ethnic violence, he said.

==

Growth of ethnic gangs aggravates tensions

IAN STEWART in Kuala Lumpur

As one group of police were dealing with an outbreak of racial violence in a poor neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur involving rival Indian and Malay gangs, another was arresting 121 Chinese allegedly taking part in a triad initiation ceremony near Malacca.

The two developments highlight the growth of ethnic-based gangs in Malaysia, which are aggravating tensions in mixed-race squatter areas, where people eke out a living in squalid surroundings.

Poverty, frustration over living conditions and the prejudices of people of different races and religions contributed to the initial skirmishes in the cluster of deprived colonies south of the Federal Highway carrying commuters between the city centre and the fancy condominiums of Petaling Jaya. The skirmishes led to pitched battles between members of Indian and Malay gangs, residents said.

Gang-instigated violence is common in the area and local store-keepers have complained of having to pay protection money to both Malay and Indian groups. The most active gangs are made up of Indians, many of whom have migrated to Kuala Lumpur from rural estates where they were raised.

Several major groups of criminals, such as the Stehr Gang, named after the automatic weapon that is part of their armament, are Indian.

According to a recent police study on violent crime, 38 Indian gangs, with 1,500 members, are responsible for most crime in the country. A senior officer said that although Indians were the third largest race after the Malays and Chinese, they committed the most crimes.

Malays and other indigenous people represent about 60 per cent of the population, while Chinese account for 26 per cent and Indians about eight per cent.

The Malay, Chinese and Indian gangs reflect the polarisation of the three main communities. Surveys have shown that members of each race prefer the company of their own kind outside the classroom or office.

Chinese secret societies capitalise on concerns about their minority status and Malay political dominance, according to social workers, providing Chinese with a protective big brother.

The alleged triad members arrested on Sunday were caught after police were alerted to a large number of cars heading into Jasmin, 25km east of Malacca. Seventy officers surrounded the area where the cars had parked and detained the suspects. Eleven of the 121 Chinese taken into custody were students aged from 13 to 18.

Police said they were being initiated into the Red Face Society, which they said has links to Hong Kong. They seized a sword, joss sticks and red ribbons and cloth, which were believed to have been used in the ceremony.

http://www.scmp.com

Source: The Business Times, Singapore
14th March 2001

Public gatherings banned in Selangor. Rumour-mongers may be detained without trial

POLICE yesterday banned public gatherings and said they may detain rumour-mongers without trial after Malaysia's worst ethnic clashes for decades.

Seven more arrests were announced, bringing the total to 190 since clashes between ethnic Indians and Malays erupted last Thursday. Six people were killed and 52 injured.

Five men armed with parangs (machetes) and spiked clubs were held, plus two for spreading rumours.

Asked if the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows indefinite detention without trial, would be used against rumour-mongers, the Selangor state police chief said it was being considered.

"We are looking (at) it," said Nik Ismail Nik Yusoff, adding that the ISA would only be used if no other law could be applied.

Hundreds of police, including paramilitaries with M-16 rifles and riot squads, kept watch in the run-down districts but life seemed to be returning to normal.

A minor neighbourhood quarrel triggered off unrest in Kampung Medan and other poor districts of Petaling Jaya town just west of Kuala Lumpur.

Some 148 people were brought to court on Monday for remand. Police said they were being investigated for a variety of offences including murder.

Police reported three attacks on Sunday and Monday in nearby areas but it was not clear if they were related to the ethnic unrest.

All public gatherings and speeches were temporarily banned in the state of Selangor, which surrounds Kuala Lumpur, following the clashes.

"For the moment, we are not allowing any talks or public gatherings," Nik Ismail was quoted by Bernama news agency as saying.

Opposition party leaders repeated a call for talks with the government.

Democratic Action Party (DAP) secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock said all parties must cooperate to halt tension amid widespread rumours and the "fragility of ethnic relations".

National Justice Party deputy president Chandra Muzaffar called for an independent inquiry, saying there appeared to be "many unanswered questions about what really happened". -- AFP

http://business-times.asia1.com.sg

Source: The Melbourne Age
14th March 2001

Racial tension grips Malaysia

By MARK BAKER, ASIA EDITOR
KUALA LUMPUR

Hundreds of police and paramilitary forces are patrolling the tense streets of one of Kuala Lumpur's poorest neighborhoods after several days of ethnic violence that has left at least six people dead and more than 40 injured.

In Malaysia's worst eruption of inter-communal violence in more than 30 years, Malays, Indians and immigrant Indonesians fought pitched battles across the weekend in Petaling Jaya, a satellite city on the outskirts of the capital.

Witnesses said most of those killed were hacked with machetes or bludgeoned with clubs and steel pipes. One of the dead, an Indian hotel worker, was set upon by a mob as he was returning home from a night shift.

By early yesterday, close to 200 people had been detained, including five soldiers from a military base close to the district of Taman Medan, an area populated mostly by laboring families, migrant workers and squatters.

Officials and the government-controlled media have attempted to play down the severity of the clashes but opposition parties said the toll was much higher than authorities admitted and there was a danger of fresh clashes, despite the heavy deployment of security forces.

"Based on reliable family and hospital sources, we fear the actual number of deaths is greater than the official figure," the opposition Barisan Alternatif Alliance said in a statement. "The situation is still serious and yet to subside."

One opposition party official said that at least 12 people had been killed: 10 Indians, one Malay and one Indonesian migrant worker.

The violence comes at a time of rising racial tension in Malaysia, with the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, seeking to shore up its waning political stocks with appeals for Malay unity and what many regard as blatant Malay chauvinism.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi fuelled speculation that the violence was politically motivated when he told a meeting in the area on Monday that authorities suspected provocateurs were spreading rumors about fresh atrocities to inflame tensions.

"We do not know who are spreading these rumors. If we know who they are we can act because we know they are instigators," he said.

Malaysia has long struggled to reconcile differences between the Malays, who form two-thirds of the population, the 25 per cent Chinese community, who are economically dominant, and the eight per cent Indian community, many struggling descendants of Tamil laborers brought in by the British as plantation workers.

In 1969 about 200 people were killed in race riots between Malays and Chinese sparked by an election result that showed a sharp fall in support for UMNO.

Recent programs of affirmative action to advance Malays in employment and education have fuelled resentment among poor Indians who consider themselves worse off and often treated as third-class citizens.

The latest violence is believed to have been sparked by an incident 10 days ago when Indians attacked a party of Malays in Taman Medan who were preparing for a wedding ceremony. During the brawl, several people were injured and a car and two motorcycles were burnt.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/

Source: The Australian

Malaysia's racial violence explosion

By Ian Stewart
13mar01

AN explosion of racial violence in a working-class area of Kuala Lumpur, killing five people and injuring 37, has shattered a long period of relative peace among Malaysia's ethnic groups, who had avoided the bloodletting seen in neighbouring countries.

But analysts said they were not surprised by the clashes last week between Malays and Indians, which were the worst incidents involving people of different races in more than 30 years. They said Malaysia was fortunate there had not been more eruptions, given its racial and religious mix.

Malays and other indigenous people represent about 60 per cent of the population, while Chinese make up 26 per cent and Indians about 9 per cent. There are also large numbers of legal and illegal workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh and other countries.

The neighbourhood of the racial conflict, Klang Lama, is more like a rural village than part of a metropolis. It is away from the Petronas Twin Towers, the world's tallest buildings in the centre of the capital, and the affluent suburbs of high-rise apartments.

The people, mainly petty traders and factory workers, live in squatter homes built without permits on government land. The Indians have their temples and the Malays pray in the local mosque. They live separate lives, except when working together.

The fighting was sparked by a row between an Indian bound for a funeral, who found a road blocked by the chairs and tables of a Malay wedding reception, and the father of the bride. The Indian was chased away by some Malay youths but returned with several friends who allegedly attacked the father and wedding guests with parangs (large chopping knives). Brawling between members of the two races followed over several days, resulting in the deaths of five people, four of them Indians.

The death toll was light compared with the most serious ethnic incident in modern Malaysia's history on May 13, 1969, when racial riots resulted in the deaths of nearly 200 people, more than 70 per cent of them from the commercially dominant Chinese community.

The introduction of affirmative action, aimed at giving Malays a larger share of the nation's wealth and special consideration in securing jobs and entry to universities, helped ease tensions between Malays and Chinese. But many members of the Indian community feel marginalised because they have not attained the financial security of the Chinese and are barred from privileges given Malays.

Also, attempts to forge a Malaysian identity have made slow progress because of the continuing preference of most Malays, Chinese and Indians to socialise only with their own race. At the same time, the division of the races has been heightened by their religious differences.

In March 1998, Malay Muslims and Indian Hindus in Kampung Rawa, Penang, fought in the street following a dispute over the construction of a temple. Police had to use tear gas to break up the battling antagonists.

Malaysian leaders sought to play down the racial nature of the latest incidents. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said it was "not like in Indonesia".

But Lee Lam Thye, a member of the National Unity Advisory Panel and former member of parliament said: "We cannot take interracial harmony in our multiracial nation for granted."