THANKLESSNESS

SURPRISE?

1. I was not at all surprised last Sunday morning 10th May, 2009 when reading, in the newspapers, on the release of P. Uthayakumar from detention. I thought that he should have been released earlier and saved public funds spent on his food and lodging.

2. However, I was rather concerned, earlier on, to read his pamphlet entitled 'Flame of Freedom - My 500 days' in which he declared that ' ..... .... ours is a long drawn battle for freedom - the struggle continues ... ...'. This pamphlet was written, and distributed, from prison at 7.55 am on 26th April, 2009. P. Uthayakumar was obviously afraid that without the pamphlet he would have been forgotten over a period of time.

3. P. Uthayakumar is the one who is unpleasantly surprised by his release. He was saddened by it. With his release it shows that the government is not afraid of him causing trouble any more. Of course he is not thanking the authority for releasing him, or for giving him the freedom which he does not want. We should not accept his reason for not thanking the authority, that is - he was wrongly detained'. All prisoners, even rapists and murderous, for that matter, will claim wrong detention for their arrest.

THE ROAD TO FAME

4. We have never heard detainees thanking the authority for arresting them. Uthayakumar is however different. He became famous for his arrest without achieving anything that he struggled for. Upon reflection he must be thankfull for being detained. It is his road to fame

5. Certainly Uthayakumar realised that the best thing that could happen to him is to be imprisoned. With imprisonment he gained popularity out of sympathy and without much effort

6. From Uthayakumar's pamphlet it is 'obvious' that he enjoyed his imprisonment and hoped that his popularity would grow by the day, and that by the 13th General Election he would have overthrown the BN Federal Government.

7.But his contribution, by being detained, is now ended.

8. In order to maintain his fame or gain more popularity Uthayakumar will now have to offer something for the people. But this can better be done by the Indian representatives, in the Barisan Nasional, under the new leadership. After all Uthayakumar's grouses were provoked by the ineffective leadership of Dato' Seri Samy Vellu and the failure of Tun Abdullah Badawi to recognise this ineffectiveness.

9. Uthayakumar, like his mentor Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and Pakatan's colleage Y. B. Ahmad Sabu of PAS, realises the importance of imprisonment for achieving fame and popularity.

In fact they should be thankful for the existance of the ISA.

10. While Uthayakumar is sad by his release Ahmad Sabu must be happy with his recent short detention; it will go a long way in helping him to retain the Vice-Presidency of PAS during the next PAS Muktamar. Ahmad Sabu had used this trick my times before.

PRIME MINISTER - OLD & NEW

11. The first great unhappiness that Uthayakumar experienced was when Pak Lah ( now Tun ) forced out of the government. Pak Lah's departure removed a major cause that would spell disaster to BN in the 13th General Election. As of now Pakatan Rakyat is slowly losing the people's support as the Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib advances in performing his duties. If Dato' Seri Najib delivers then BN's performance will improve in the 13th General Election.

12. In his pamphlet Uthayakumar wrote:

"Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's continued unilateral decree is that I be made to serve a jail sentence of two years and indefinitely thereafter under his regime. There are prisoners here at Kemta Kemunting, Taiping, serving their eighth year under the ISA sentences"

13. But what Uthayakumar wrote is proven wrong. He is not going to stay indefinitely. He lost the opportunity to appear serving a course by staying in prison and thereby doing nothing.

14. But why picked on Dato' Seri Najib? Uthayakumar was arrested and detained during Pak Lah's premiership.

15. Furthermore, there is no requirement in the law that the Home Minister has to refer to the Prime Minister before making an arrest or extending a detention. It is the police, and the interviewing legal authority, that recommends to the Home Minister on whom to arrest and on whether an extension of detention is necessary.

16. After all the police is not stupid and would like to minimise their trouble by not releasing a trouble-maker or releasing someone before they are assured that the public cannot be manupulated by the trouble-maker anymore.

17. Uthayakumar picked Dato' Seri Najib to upgrade himself to the level of the Prime Minister. It is political. But Uthayakumar was not arrested for political but security reasons.

18. Uthayakumar hoped that with his continued imprisonment he could gain more sympathy.

CHEATING HEART

19. He wrote:

"I know in my heart that every day of my imprisonment will liberate and open up a thousand minds against UMNO's atrocities and injustices in their marginalisation, discrimination, suppression, oppression and the exclusison of Indians from the mainstream of national development in Malaysia."

20. Why should Uthayakumar picked on UMNO?

21. He picked on UMNO because it is a legally registered political party. By attacking UMNO he hopes that the people will compare UMNO and put it at PAR with the Hindraff, which is an unregistered and illegal organisation. That is impossible and nonsensical.

22. Uthayakumar has forgotten that the membership of UMNO is more than 3 million, i.e. more than the Indian population in Malaysia.

DATO' SERI SAMY VELLU

23. But Uthayakumar's problem is not with Dato' Seri Najib but with Dato' Seri Samy Vellu. The Hindraff's rival is not UMNO but the MIC. It is the failure of Dato' Seri Samy Vellu's leadership of MIC which should be the target of Uthayakumar and the Hindraff.

24. But Uthayakumar is an Indian of Tamil origin. He should have gone into the MIC and used his skill, if any, to overthrow his rival Dato' Seri Samy Vellu. Then he would be representing the Indians in the government. Indians of Punjabi, Kerala, Malayali and other origins might not easily find a place in the Tamil dominated MIC, but, being Tamil, Uthayakumar should not find much difficulty if he has the political skill and ability to outwit Dato' Seri Samy Vellu.

25. But he prefers imprisonment as a way of gaining fame and popularity, without really burdening himself with much burden any contribution.

SAMPLE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE INDIANS

26. What marginalisation is Uthayakumar talking about? If he is talking about the Indians then he must remember that:

a) The two tallest buildings in the world is owned by an Indian, Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan

b) Members of the best singing group of Malay songs are Tamils - the Allycats

c) Indian doctors dominate the medical and health industry

d) Indian lawyers, including Uthayakumar, are found in abundance, and dominate the legal arena

e) There are many Indian accountants and other professionals, and

f) Malayan Land Finance Cooperative Society Berhad was the biggest investment wing of the MIC

FAILURES

27. Is Uthayakumar not happy about these achievements? If it is the mismanagement of the NLFC that is an issue, then don't blame Dato' Sri Najib or, what more, UMNO itself. Najib and UMNO has nothing to do with this. Even UMNO's cooperative, Koperasi Usaha Bersatu Berhad, has failed.

28. If education, housing and health are the issues then ask all the educated and rich Indians, and MIC leaders, on what they should have done and now do.

29. Why are the Indian leaders, like Uthayakumar, silent on these issues when they have all the channels to present their cases. Was it because the last Prime Minister was not listening to any other Indian except for the self-centered and self-serving Dato' Seri Samy Vellu.

30. But we have a new Prime Minister now.

WAIT FOR A NEW PRIME MINISTER

31. Or would you like to wait for a new Prime Minister in the form of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim not withstanding his well-known sexual and bi-sexual exploits. All the three judges who sat at the trial in which he was acquitted agreed on one thing, and that is, he did sodomise.

32. But Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was acquitted because the time of the action was not proven.

33. One of the judges was a lady. She disagreed with the judgment because, as she asked, when oppossing it, ' if it is proven that the crime was committed, what does it matter about the time of the crime. If a rapist and a murderer is proven to have raped and murdered does it matter at what time it happened. Could he be acquitted?

34. Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim won because two of the three judges maintained that 'ours is a court of law and not a court of morality'.

35. Uthayakumar should read the record of the trial.

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

36. Malaysia is a land of opportunities. There is no marginalisation, discrimination, suppression, oppression, exclusion, atrocities and injustices against any race in Malaysia. These rhetorical words are used by the desparadoes who have no correct methodologies of doing things.

37. In the Quran it is said that ' God shall not change the fate of men until they change themselves.'

38. Just like the Indians the Malays too have a lot to complain about. The Malays, being Muslims, should also be reminded of the above ayat of the Quran.

THE BEARD

39. In trying to seek sympathy Uthayakumar wrote:

"Today, it is 500 days since I shaved my beard or combed my hair to protest my ISA detention."

40. One is free to keep one's beard and not comb one's hair for any reason. But it must be kept clean for one's own health and so as not to affect the foul odor on other inmates.

DIABETICS

41. Uthayakumar further wrote:

"On Jan 31, 2009, I had accidentally injured the last toe of my left foot, which had gotten worse because of my long standing diabetic condition. From day one of my injury, I had repeatedly asked to be treated at the Gleneagles private hospital as I no longer have confidence in the independence of government-service doctors, which I believe had been compromised by the Home Ministry and its Special Branch police officers."

42. There is nothing great to highlight about diabetic having an injured toe. I am a diabetic myself. My advice is for Uthayakumar to stop taking too much sugar or eat too much rice while in prison. He should also do enough excercise. I have always thought that the prison is the best place to control your appetite and thereby control your diabetics.

43. There is no need for that prestigious hospital the Gleneagles, where prosperous lawyers go, to control your diabetics. Your wife can probably provide you with a blood sugar tester and some diabetic pills like 'glucovance 500'. If the blood sugar reading goes above 5.8, depending on the maximum such as 8 or 9, which is an allowable norm for a diabetic patient then you can take a glucovance. One such glucovance will reduce your sugar by 7. Take half if you need to reduce by just 3 to 4 points.

44. As an Indian champion Uthayakumar should not over-eat when many Indians still need help. He should not unnecessarily blow up his problem. He is not going to be amputated. With amputation it is probably difficult for him to march smartly in a future demonstration. My advise to Uthayakumar is to control his blood sugar. He should look after his diabetics and not depend on the police officers who had enough problem keeping the peace of the country.

BEEF IN CHICKEN CURRY

45. Uthayakumar was reminding us of the Indian Mutiny when the British used pork to provoke the Muslims in India during the colonial period.

46. He wrote:

"On March 22, 2009, I found pieces of beef in the chicken sambal served to me. Mohamad, a Pakistani national, and Abdul Sarjon, a Sri Lankan national, and fellow detainees who worked at the prison kitchen confirmed that chicken and beef were cooked in the same pot after which the chicken was scooped out and served."

47. This is not a very plausible story. If the Pakistani and Sri Lankan nationals had served beef to a devout Hindu then Uthayakumar should declare war on Pakistan and Sri Lanka, like the Tamil Tigers, and not against Dato' Seri Najib and UMNO.

48. If the prison cooks were so creative as to put both the beef and chicken in the same pot it must have been with the intention of eating the beef themselves and served Uthayakumar with the chicken. It would not be to humiliate Uthayakumar as they, presumably Muslims, believed that God forgives ignorance. Surely Hinduism is not that cruel as to punish a devout Hindu for eating beef if he ate out of ignorance. It was important that Uthayakumar stopped eating, as he did, when he found the beef.

49. His report to the police should be taken seriously even without the knowledge of Uthayakumar.

50. Uthayakumar can continue to raise this serious matter with the authorities. But Uthayakumar would not want the opportunity to complain as he wrote:

"I have refused to meet any of the Special Branch Officers who came to meet detainees once in every two to three months, to plead for my release.'

51. It is obvious that Uthayakumar did not want to raise the subject of the beef in chicken curry during the meeting with the special branch officers. That meeting need not be 'to plead for release."

52. It should be noted that Uthayakumar would not like to leave the detention camp even with the beef in the chicken curry.

53. He wrote:

"My biggest satisfaction and what keeps me going in prison is the true and sincere spirit of the struggle through Hindraf's Makkal Sakthi."

54. Now that Uthayakumar is free he can often pray to the diety Murugan at Batu Caves, built by Dato' Seri Samy Vellu during the period of Pak Lah's Islam Hadhari.