Swastika - Its Origin

It was during my visit to a temple that I spotted two swastikas on its gate and they set me wondering why the swastika has taken on a meaning that denotes evil.

The swastika on the temple's gate

In ancient times, the swastika was a symbol that represented life, sun, power, strength, and good luck.

Ancient Greece

Ancient Rome

Ancient India

The Viking era

A pottery bowl from ancient China

American Indian art: the Navajo rug

A Navajo bracelet

19th century Chinese textile

A Hindu temple, India

In modern times, before Nazi Germany usurped the emblem, it was a symbol for good luck.

A good luck coin from the US

A good luck coin from the US

A 1916 photo of a Canadian women's ice-hockey team called the Swastikas

A greeting card

The good luck charm

The symbol that proclaimed the purity and the superiority of the German race in Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

The holocaust committed in the name of the now infamous Swastika.

Coincidentally, I spotted this photo in www.batupahat.org. The swastika emblem and the name of the shop inappropriately named "OM" , the Hindu mantra.

Hindraf, what next?

The Hindraf rally has made its point. It has shown what it can do to mobilize huge numbers to its cause. But perhaps it is time for Hindraf to evaluate the impact of its actions and set its future course.

Briefly, by words and actions, it has

• dramatically brought the problems of the Indian community to the attention of Malaysians and the world
• condemned MIC for not doing more for the community
• revealed how insensitive and arrogant the authorities have been in the way they demolished temples built illegally
• shown that when a people have been pushed to the precipice, there is only one way to go: jump and to hell with the consequences
• demonstrated that communitarian politics espoused and upheld by the government is a double-edged sword
• given voice to the groundswell of discontent over the NEP, or the national economic policy that promises to be colour-blind in the eradication of poverty but is in effect an affirmative discrimination policy that favours the major ethnic population
• warned that Malaysia may become another Sri Lanka.

Would Hindraf continue further on a collision course that it has already set? It has embarrassed the government immeasurably by bringing its fight to the world’s stage and canvassing for global support. The government is not going to forget the perceived harm done to the country. It has worked hard to project Malaysia as a model multi-racial country, “Malaysia truly Asia”, and what Hindraf has done is to dispel this myth.

Already there are calls to revoke the citizenships of those involved and ominous warnings that the majority ethnic population could do what Hindraf has done, and even better given its numerical superiority.

The government on the other hand has

• arrested and charged some of the demonstrators for attempted murder of police personnel
• arrested and charged some for illegal assembly and for causing public disorder
• alleged that Hindraf is manipulated by the opposition
• alleged that Hindraf has links to terrorists
• refused to meet with Hindraf
• accused Hindraf of creating a climate of racial intolerance and instability
• threatened to impose the ISA, or the Internal Security Act where an accused could be detained indefinitely for disrupting the peace and security of the country
• directed the police to come down harder on illegal assemblies as no one is above of law.

Above all, it has strengthened UMNO’s hand as the protector of the Malays, providing it with yet another chip to raise its stake in the political game.

Both are caught in the same bind. Hindraf has no political clout to negotiate with the government; neither does the government want to deal with an organization that has accused it of practising ‘ethnic cleansing’. Further, it cannot be seen to be talking or even negotiating with a maverick organization as that would be perceived as giving in to the demands of Hindraf. On the other hand, Hindraf would not want to associate itself with MIC, the Indian partner in the government. Checkmate.

Hindraf would have to consider carefully what its next course of action should be, keeping in mind the prevailing racial sentiments that resulted from its actions. If it is hell-bent on pursuing a confrontational course that leads to chaos and anarchy, Malaysians, and even the Indian community, would never allow it. Hindraf has to find a way to reach out to the government now that it has conveyed to the government the misery of the Indian poor and dispossessed while the government cannot wish away its presence by continuing to ignore it or remove it by demanding its pound of flesh.

The impasse has to be broken without either side losing face.

Rich Man Poor Man

I was in the vicinity of Jalan Aman, a secluded street lined with expensive houses when I spotted the incongruence of the scene. Batu Pahat has a lot of rich and not so rich people. But the wooden house is sitting on a gold mine.

The Screw is Tightening

In today's 'The New Straits Times' and 'the star' papers:

The New Straits Times

• EDITORIAL: Enough!

HINDRAF leaders were due yesterday to take their smear campaign to Europe, Britain and the United States to spread the vile contagion with which they have already infected India: that their homeland, Malaysia, is committing "ethnic cleansing" against Indians, who are a community subjected to systematic state repression. Such unconscionable allegations won the sympathetic ear of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Karunanidhi, who conveyed them to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who expressed his concern to the Malaysian government. While in Chennai, Hindraf also met with leaders of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and in Delhi with L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh, leaders of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. P. Uthayakumar has brazenly declared to a Singapore newspaper that he "can't rule out violence". Rising out of this cauldron of lies, distortions and blatant political opportunism, the volatile vapours of speculation go so far as to threaten a militant insurgency.

The oft-cited "underlying grievances" of the nation's Indians have been recognised, as have those of the Malays, Chinese and other races, and slowly but surely attended to for the past 50 years. But that means nothing at all to Hindraf's prime movers, who now want global sanctions against their own country, even as their campaign drives wedges between Malaysian communities with deeply hurtful racial and religious rhetoric.

Tragically, such inflammatory behaviour is not unknown here. Hence, the arsenal of internal security statutes in our legislation. The government has warned rabble-rousers not to play with fire. But their response has been undiminished defiance and more incitement, virtually daring the authorities to move. Having invoked the spectre of the Internal Security Act, the government is now caught on the conundrum of either resorting to the hammer of the law -- which the deputy prime minister admits the government is loath to do -- or having its bluff called by Hindraf's instigators. Forty years ago, nay, even 10 years ago, the Internal Security Act would have been used against such agitators without a second thought. But the current administration's restraint in calling upon this controversial law in the spirit of the openness it has preached and practised has been flagrantly violated by Hindraf's extremism. If left unchecked, the consequences of fanning the embers of religious and racial emotion are too awful to contemplate.

The country's silent majority is at last beginning to speak up against the destructive potential of this matter. For their sake -- and for that of a nation that lives by a solemn agreement that no one should burn down the house we all share -- it may be necessary now to exercise the full powers of the law. No matter how regrettable, these subversives need to be reminded why all Malaysians have to live with the prospect of detention for those few who revel in attempting to destroy the national concord that millions have spent decades trying to build.

(Slowly, but surely for the last fifty years? It reminds me of what Martin Luther King said,

"We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children".

Other headlines in the New Straits Times:

• Hindraf heads with ties to terrorists to be watched

• Hindraf 'does not speak for majority of Indians'

• Allegations way out of line, says MCA secretary-general

• IGP (Inspector General of Police): Hindraf out to incite racial unrest

The Star

• Close watch on Hindraf

• PM: I won’t tolerate inciters of violence

• Link is with Tamil Tigers and India’s RSS, says Nazri

• Sikhs: We don’t back street protests

• Company named Hindraf loses licence

• Indians told not to fall into Hindraf trap

Read here for a perspective on the word "ethnic cleansing".

Welcome to the global village, Malaysia.

Flummoxed by a Fridge

Recently back from a 10 day holiday, I discovered that the kitchen wreaked of a stench of rotting meat. I thought it was some dead rat or cat that had sneaked into the house and died there of starvation. I went in search of the dead animal until I got near to the fridge and was blown away by that overpowering stench. I knew then with a sinking feeling that my mother had in her perennial forgetfulness turned off the power that feeds the fridge. God, 10 days and with the meat, fruit and whatnots in it turned into liquid, it was going to be hell cleaning the fridge. I opened the doors to the fridge and true enough the liquid of rotting meat, vegetables and fruit had oozed out and coagulated on the floor despite the rubber insulation that lines the doors.

That evening, we cleared every thing from the fridge and washed it thoroughly.

The detachable panel at the back of the freezer

Day 2: The smell was still there. Just couldn't figure out where it came from because it seemed to be coming from every part of the fridge. I put my nose deep into the top compartment which is the freeze and I seemed to detect the odour. Dismantled the back panel of the freezer and true enough, the brownish slime was lodged in the crevices and the grooves of the panel. Having washed that compartment thoroughly, I proceeded to inspect the rest of the fridge and found that the slime was also lodged in some of the grooves of the detachable trays. I went through the tedious process of wiping again, and just in case, I mopped the floor with a heavy dose of Dettol. My nose had become so accustomed to the smell that it was playing a cat and mouse game with me: now you smell me now you don't. I decided that my had nose had to be desensitized of the stench. So I stopped sniffing.

Day3: I approached the fridge cautiously and sniffed the air; the smell had abated somewhat, but it was still there. Like a dog, I stuck my nose as close as possible to every nook and corner of the fridge and and by accident, as I prised the rubber insulation of the freezer compartment door, I discovered to my dismay, that tiny eggs that would probably become maggots were lodged in the lining. Thereafter, I went about prying the insulation for the other door and wiping it clean.

The rubber insulation that lines the door

Closer view of the rubber insulation

The tray at the bottom of the fridge

Thereafter I bought a kilo of baking soda and put them on plates and left them in the fridge, replenishing them with fresh baking soda after each day for three days. After the third day, and the smell still there, I bought a kilo of grounded coffee (as advised by experts on the net) , put it in two plates and closed the fridge. After this, the fridge smelt of coffee. But the unmistakable odour was still there. I went down on my knees to check the bottom of the fridge and it was then that I spotted the tray to trap water. The slime had coagulated and I nearly threw up when the odour hit me. I was hopeful then that that was the problem. Yes, it was for after washing it and exposing it to the hot sun for a day, the fridge was clean. Still not content with it, I bought a piece of charcoal (again on expert advice) and left it in the fridge to absorb the last traces of the stench.

Charcoal

It was to say the least an unpleasant experience that would remind me to check all switches before I leave the house for even a day.

HINDRAF lawyer fears arrest

From The Straits Times, Singapore.

Dec 5, 2007

Maverick M'sian Indian lawyer fears arrest

KUALA LUMPUR - A MALAYSIAN human rights lawyer, who helped organise 10,000 ethnic Indians to protest against racial discrimination, said on Wednesday he feared he might be jailed for years without trial for speaking up.

But 46-year-old P. Uthayakumar, who said he was inspired by this year's demonstrations by monks in Myanmar against its military regime, said he would continue to champion his causes despite threats of arrest.

'There is fear. The PM (Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) has warned us he will put us under the ISA,' referring to the colonial-era Internal Security Act (ISA) that allows indefinite detention without trial.

'We are saying that we are speaking the truth. If you put us under the ISA, you will oppress us,' he told Reuters in an interview. 'But it is not in our hands, it is in (the government's) hands.'

The UK-trained lawyer, and his younger brother P. Waythamoorty who has since left the country, were chief organisers of the community's unprecedented Nov 25 anti-government protest that rocked Malaysia ahead of possible early polls.

In early 2006, Mr Uthayakumar set up the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which has emerged as one of the most vocal pressure groups challenging Mr Abdullah's administration.

Son of a train driver, the outspoken and maverick lawyer has fought for the rights of poor and working class Indians since the mid-1990s. Half his income as a lawyer is spent on his causes.

Four other Hindraf leaders are also lawyers.

'They are poor men's lawyers,' said Baradan Kuppusamy, an ethnic Indian journalist specialising in Indian issues. 'They have some status among the poor. They are fighting it out on the ground. That is their legitimacy.'

Turning point?
Mr Uthayakumar has since turned to allegations of 'ethnic cleansing' of Indians in Malaysia, a claim strongly disputed by Mr Abdullah.

'Every three weeks, one (Hindu) temple is being demolished. Every two weeks, one youth dies in police custody,' he said, adding that 60 per cent of the youths are ethnic Indians although that group accounts for just 8 per cent of Malaysia's population.

'If this is not ethnic cleansing, what is ethnic cleansing?' Mr asked Uthayakumar, although he conceded it was a far cry from the sort of actions on a massive scale seen in places like Bosnia.

He said the Nov 25 rally could be a turning point in Malaysian politics and help shape the outcome of the coming elections.

But leaders of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, which has governed the country since independence from Britain in 1957, have described Hindraf leaders as nothing but troublemakers.

'I never thought this will happen during my lifetime. Even three months ago, to get 10 people to support us, nobody wants to come. Now suddenly, everybody is coming,' Mr Uthayakumar said.

'People are donating a lot of money. We have collected about 150,000 ringgit (S$65,050),' he said. 'Ninety per cent of the Indians vote out of fear, out of no choice, out of desperation. They just continue to vote for Barisan Nasional. But now the mindset has changed.' -- REUTERS