Kuala Lumpur, Mar. 2: Malaysian prosecutors charged 11 ethnic Indian activists with being members of an outlawed group linked to recent protests against racial discrimination, a lawyer said Wednesday. The charges are an apparent attempt to thwart what authorities consider a threat to multiracial stability in the ethnic Malay Muslim-majority nation.
The 11 men pleaded innocent to charges of being members of the Hindu Rights Action Force, said lawyer P. Uthayakumar. Six were charged Wednesday and five others Tuesday in separate courts in northern and central Malaysia. They face up to three years in prison if convicted. The government banned the group in 2008, about a year after it rallied tens of thousands of people in a demonstration seeking more economic help for ethnic Indians.
Activists associated with the group organized protests in the past month but attracted only a few hundred people. Those charged were involved in protests over the years, but now consider themselves part of a newer group with a different name, Uthayakumar said. "How can a human rights organization be a security threat?" he said. "We are fighting against discrimination." Court hearings are scheduled for April. Prosecutors could not immediately be contacted.
Ethnic Indians are Malaysia's third-largest ethnic group, comprising about 8 percent of the country's 28 million people. Malays constitute nearly two-thirds of the population and dominate the government, while ethnic Chinese form about 25 percent and control a large share of the corporate wealth. Many Indians are employed in menial jobs. They have spoken out strongly in recent years against the government's decades-old affirmative action policy favoring Malays in education, jobs and business. Authorities deny any unfair discrimination, saying minorities in need also receive assistance. AP
