UMNO has shown disrespect for Deepavali and Hindus by continuing with its General Assembly on November 8 when the Prime Minister and UMNO leaders should be marking Deepavali celebrations with open houses of Hindus
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Press Statement (2)
by Lim Guan Eng
________________________
(Petaling Jaya,
Friday):
DAP deeply regrets and
disagrees with MIC President
Datuk S. Samy Vellu that the
Indian community will not
feel slighted by Umno's
decision to continue its
General Assembly on Deepavali
on November 8 with UMNO
decision not to take any
break but continue with its
meeting from 5-9 November
2007. UMNO should be
condemned for continuing to
hold its meetings on
Deepavali even though it is a
public holiday.
UMNO has show disrespect for
Deepavali and all Hindus by
continuing with its General
Assembly on November 8, when
the Prime Minister and UMNO
leaders should be marking
Deepavali celebrations with
open houses of Hindus. Even
if Samy cannot criticize UMNO since UMNO is a big
brother or even a father-like
figure to MIC, he should not
have openly endorsed and
agreed with UMNO’s move.
By saying that Indians are
mature, not so narrow-minded
as to misinterpret the
situation in understanding
that Umno had to continue its
meeting because it was
already close to the year's
end, Samy is clearly speaking
for himself and not for
Indians in Malaysia. I have
received calls from Indians
who are angry at what Samy is
saying.
Some even say that whilst
they are upset at UMNO for
not respecting Deepavali,
many are angrier at Samy for
blindly supporting UMNO’s
disrespect of Deepavali. The
common sentiment is how UMNO
leaders can and non-Hindus
respect Hindu temples,
beliefs and Deepavali if
self-proclaimed Hindu leaders
and Indian leaders like Samy
do not even respect and
uphold the importance of
Deepavali.
When one’s own community
leaders diminishes and
reduces his own community’s
culture to irrelevance until
he dares not even criticize
those who disparage the
importance of Deepavali, it
is not surprising that
Indians are the marginalized
Malaysian. Not only are
Indians left out economically
and educationally, even their
customs and religions fail to
gain proper respect. For
instance, Parliament House
was turned into an abattoir
recently when cows and
buffaloes were slaughtered in
the grounds of Parliament
House without any respect for
the sensitivities of Hindus.
For this reason, Samy should
retract his open support for
UMNO’s continuing to hold its
General Assembly on Deepavali
day and unconditionally
apologize to the Indian
community. To redeem his
mistake, Samy should bring up
in the next Cabinet meeting
by impressing upon Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi to respect
Deepavali as a public holiday
by not continuing with the
UMNO meeting but to celebrate
together with Hindu friends
in the spirit of
multi-religious and
multi-cultural freedom,
respect and harmony.
(26/10/2007)
* Lim Guan
Eng,
Secretary-General of DAP |