Badawi Reaches out to Indians
In a clear attempt to curry favor amongst the Indian electorate, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi orchestrated a pre-Deepavali festival release of ten Indian protesters that bad been arrested late last week while presenting a petition at Badawi’s office for the freedom of five activists that have been jailed since November of last year. Their group has been outlawed for about a month now.
As reported by the Economic Times:
Those held included K. Shanti, wife of Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy, who is in self-exile in London, and their six-year-old daughter Vwaishhnnavi. Shanti was released on police bail Thursday night and Vwaishhnnavi left with her, official news agency Bernama said.
A police spokesman said all of them were freed to enable them to celebrate Deepavali. “Although the police, under the law, could extend their remand orders to facilitate investigations, yet on humanitarian ground they were released to enable them to celebrate the festive occasion,” the spokesman added.
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Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar last week said in an interview that the action against the banned movement should not be construed as a clampdown on Indians orHinduism. The action taken so far, he said, was simply because of their association with militancy and their extremist views.
Badawi spoke to a group on Sunday saying: “In the spirit of Diwali, that good will always prevail. Malaysians must remain together and not allow extremist groups and individuals to cause tensions to rise. “We are mature and united enough to recognise that the vast majority of Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, all aspire to achieve the same objectives for our families and for our country.”
