Race Politics and Custodial Deaths

POLICE DAHAGAKAN DARAH KAUM INDIA!.

These were the words that screamed on a banner hung on the van carrying the coffin of A. Kugan. A photograph of the deceased with all the gory details was also shown, being part of the banner. It doesn’t take an Einstein to understand what’s being brandished around. Clearly the banner was designed to incite. It is also politically motivated to advertise the perceived tyranny of the police force. Also, by extension, the tyranny of the UMNO led government. It is fashionable and indeed de rigueur to assign blame automatically to the government for all ills in this country.

The ominous message behind the public show of the death is obvious. Because the government is Malay led, it must be by definition evil. This is the message the people behind HINDRAF would want to instil. Thus the Sivaji of HINDRAF asked, knowing of the intended answer beforehand, is this because the victim is a defenceless INDIAN?

I have written earlier no one can judge how the surviving members of his family or sections of the Indian community chose to ventilate their anger and anguish. They want to wail, they want to turn his death into a public spectacle to achieve whatever desired effects, that it is their choice. The organisers of the funeral procession wanted to publicise the death of A. Kugan. Once publicised in such an inflammatory manner, they can never contain the ramifications. Among them, the organisers can never fault the public into thinking they are being led to regard the death of the unfortunate Kugan, as one actuated by racial prejudice. That is the primary objective anyway. We can see the coming headlines. HINDRAF says- the death of Kugan is another example of the genocide perpetrated by the evil Malays on the Indian community.

The fact of the matter is his death is another in the list of custodial deaths. This term refers to deaths that occurred while the accused or suspects were in police custody.

Suppose now, the police declassify their information regarding custodial deaths and have the data published. Suppose now, out of that number, the majority who perished were Malays/Indonesians/Muslims and not Indians. How will our reaction be? Will it be met with the cynical response, oh, that’s all right, because the dead are Malays?

All I then need to do is to pose an incendiary question- why are Malays dropping dead left and right? What can possibly happen after that? The Malays would explode. The aggrieved Malay community vents out their anguish and anger with violent outpouring of emotions, amuks and various forms of public disorder, disturbances and so forth. The actions can destabilise the entire nation. All because, I ask a question, mistaken as heroic, why are Malays dropping dead, left and right. The same as Polis dahagakan darah kaum India.

Will it be all right, if the dead were Malays and it would further be all right, if Malays kill Malay policemen? That would be the natural turn of argument, wouldn’t it?

It is most important, that other cooler heads prevail over inflamed emotions. A murder does not become less important if the victim is an ethnic Indian or conversely, it becomes a national concern and therefore more important, if the victim was a Malay.

I hope our disquiet; more so the Indian community’s anguish is also directed at HINDRAF’s blatant lie, that the death of Mr Kugan is part of the genocidal plan of the maniacal UMNO led government to exterminate all Indians in Malaysia. Or that the Malaysian government is embarking on its holocaust.

I think this sordid affair about the death of Mr A Kugan should not, by design degenerate into a racial issue. I am surprised members of the opposition, especially the PKR people are silent on this. The UMNO led government must take decisive and firm action against these people who are intent to make this death into a racially motivated killing. We are being led into thinking, Malays are killing Malaysian Indians. The best way to restore our confidence is to bring the perpetrators to justice expeditiously.

If the police declassify their data and releases them to reveal that, it is indeed true that the majority of custodial deaths are Indians, what should be our appropriate response? Can we in truth, infer, that such deaths are racially motivated? In my opinion, that kind of inference is very irresponsible. That kind of thinking accepts as true, the racially motivated view that somehow Malays condone the killing of Indians. Such acceptance is premised on our own race centric bigotry.

Whereas in fact, there are probably logical reasons as to why, the majority of custodial deaths turned out to be Indians. In the 1970’s I think, it was either Lim Kit Siang or Tan Chee Koon at that time who questioned the IGP then, Tun Hanif Omar- as to why most of the communist suspects arrested and incarcerated were Chinese. Tun Hanif gave a very succinct answer. If 90% of the communists come from a specific ethnic group, then it is logical to expect, the majority of suspects caught would come from that group. Now, if 90% of criminal suspects come from the Indian community, the same logical outcome is to be expected. Correspondingly, if custodial deaths do occur, the probability that they would occur among Indian suspects is higher than of other races. That’s because they formed the largest number of suspected criminals. There is nothing racial about them.

That answers why the Indians formed the larger number of custodial deaths. As to why they are dead, there MUST be rogue elements in the force that are bumping them off. Go after them because they are murderers of a person, not because they are murderers of Indian persons.

I am therefore very assured when I read a post by a member of the dandelions who wrote this. The prisoners who were tortured and died in internment of government jails do not consist solely of Indians, but also Malays, Chinese and of other ethnicities that make up the same home that is Malaysia. To claim exclusivity and condemn purely on the race card is most unwise, not to mention provoking racial sentiments which is not in favour of the poor boy’s family’s cause, as well as everyone who has suffered excessive police force before.

I hope the force of reason and sobriety contained in his passages are well taken.