LETTER | Suaram expresses solidarity with the international solidarity movement that has grown out of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody recently.
‘Black Lives Matter’ is the demand ringing round the world against systemic racism in the US and everywhere in the world including our own in Malaysia. As we call on the US state to stop treating and killing black people in a racist manner, we call for the end of the same disproportionate cases of deaths of ethnic Indians in Malaysian police custody through the years.
In Suaram’s 2005 publication ‘Policing the Malaysian police’, we revealed that while Malaysian Indians form less than 10 percent of the Malaysian population, they made up 60 percent of the cases of deaths in police custody. The statistics from 2011 to 2018 again show that Malaysian Indians, while they are a minority in this country make up the majority in cases of deaths in police custody as follows:
Systemic racism and racial discrimination
As long as pro-Bumiputera policies remain useful in winning Bumiputera votes, it is unlikely that the ruling elite in Malaysia will want to dispense with this method of rule. Racism has been thoroughly infused in all the national institutions, including racist indoctrination of Bumiputeras in state institutions.
Strident racism has now been outsourced to the far-right Malay supremacist groups. They continue to play the role of stormtroopers and disrupt activities organised by civil society to promote social justice, democracy, and human rights. Above all, racial discrimination facilitates crony capitalism that has been facilitated by “Bumiputera” control. This has not changed since the Mahathir 1.0 era.
The ethnic Indian working class and the indigenous peoples in both East and West Malaysia are the poorest communities in Malaysia; the former and the Orang Asli cannot rely on “Bumiputera” privileges, while the indigenous peoples of East Malaysia do not enjoy the same amount of state largesse as the Malays in West Malaysia even though they are categorised as ‘Bumiputeras’.
This international movement ‘Black Lives matter’ calls for a radical transformation of all societies - an end to racism, racial discrimination, related intolerance, and the start of collective liberation everywhere.
We condemn the rise of authoritarians who reject international cooperation by appealing to primordial myths of “racial superiority”. We call for a break with this hegemonic power and for all countries to advance toward a multipolar world of non-aligned nations.
Within each and every nation, the institutions of racist state violence, its prison system, its military must be reformed and all human rights abuses by police and enforcement departments thoroughly investigated.
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.” - Martin Luther King, Jr
The writer is a Suaram adviser.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.