-SU Kumar, October 2, 2014. 

COMMENT The conviction and sentencing of P Uthayakumar to 30 months’ jail at Kajang prison for sedition, in addition to the one-and-a-half years at the Kamunting detention centre under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in 2007 for essentially the same offence, is a miscarriage of justice. Firstly, the total of four years exceeds the maximum sentence of three years for sedition.

The failure of the Court of Appeal to overturn the unjust conviction and disproportionate custodial sentence imposed on a frivolous charge of writing a ‘seditious’ letter to the then-British prime minister Gordon Brown in 2007 is tantamount to condoning the political agenda of the powers-that-be.

In spite of the nominal reduction to 24 months, this is the longest custodial sentence in the 66-year history of the notorious Sedition Act 1948.

Uthaya has done no wrong to deserve such harsh punishment. In fact, he ought to be commended for his public spiritedness, for standing up against injustice and tyranny, even at the risk of his own life and liberty.

He was first arrested in 2003 for words allegedly uttered in court during the course of an inquest into the death of a detainee in police custody, and is currently being detained for the 13th time.

Seeing that the Sessions Court was putting undue constraints and was bent on convicting him without a fair hearing, he refused to continue with his defence, saying, “Because of the circumstances of this case and in protest against institutionalised racist government policies in Malaysia victimising in particular the Indian poor, I was/am unable to proceed further with my defence, re-examination, calling further witnesses, submitting a close of case and mitigation.”

Following pleas from his supporters, he agreed to challenge his conviction but refused to post bail.

His numerous detentions are clumsy attempts by the (new) United Malays National Organisation (Umno Baru) and the state apparatus it controls, to neutralise, demonise and criminalise him for standing up to its racist Malay-supremacist policies, which Uthaya was compelled to do in the course of his work as a lawyer, human rights defender and social activist.

His struggle culminated in the Hindraf rally which Uthaya led on Nov 25, 2007. About one hundred thousand brave people converged peacefully on the streets of Kuala Lumpur in the Gandhian spirit of civil disobedience, in defiance of a ban on the gathering and threats of arrest on sight that directly challenged the 50 year stranglehold of the new colonial master – Umno Baru. It changed the political landscape and cost the ruling government dearly in the general election shortly after.

It is for this challenge that Uthaya was arrested on three different sedition charges and the ISA in 2007, not for posing a threat to national security or causing ill-will amongst its citizens.

Whatever perceived threat or ill-will was “manufactured and managed” by Umno Baru and its apparatus. To further justify his detention and demonise him, he was also falsely and maliciously linked to terrorism and the Sri Lanka-based LTTE, a claim never substantiated to this day. There has been no remedy for this criminal defamation by the state.

Reverting to sedition charge

Following local and international pressure against detention without trial, it reverted to the sedition charge in 2008 while he was still detained under the ISA. It was aploy to detain him after a ‘fair trial’ in which he could have no defence once charged, where the truth and intention did not matter.

Not a single report was lodged about the ‘seditious’ letter that Uthaya was supposed to have written in 2007 to PM Gordon Brown. The police investigating officer claimed to have downloaded it from a website, but did not have a clue about anything else. He never investigated further and did not even take a statement from Uthaya. No independent witnesses were called either.

If he had had a fair trial, the case against Uthaya would have been dismissed without his defence being called.

Uthaya had painstakingly documented on his website, www.policewatchmalaysia.com, hundreds of cases of police brutality, extra-judicial killings, custodial deaths, forced eviction, demolition of Hindu temples with the complicity of the police and a host of other grievances suffered by the Indian Malaysia poor that were not reported in the media.

It was a reference source or a dossier on police abuse and misconduct, racial discrimination and oppression of the minority Indian Malaysian poor – a crucial piece of evidence that would have justified his action.

However, after the so-called ‘seditious letter’ was downloaded , the website was hastily shut down by a Umno Baru-controlled government agency.

Over many years, Uthaya had filed about 50 public interest litigation suits and engaged just about everybody whom he thought could do something to stop the injustices, including writing to the inspector-general of police, the attorney-general, the prime minister and even the Agong (Malaysian King), to no avail. Instead, there was a marked increase in the frequency of temple demolitions and other forms of oppression.

The last straw was the demolition of the 100-year-old Padang Jawa Hindu Temple on Oct 30, 2007, just days before the Hindus were to celebrate Deepavali. Devotees who opposed the demolition were injured by municipal workers, policemen and unknown assailants complicit with the police. Some were further assaulted by police under detention. Even the four lawyers who went to secure their release were manhandled and detained, including Uthaya himself.

Having exhausted all avenues, Uthaya was compelled to publicise this to the international community. Hence the letter to Gordon Brown who was to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting shortly.

Drawing attention to human rights violations

Even if it was an exaggeration to compare the Malaysian scenario to ‘ethnic cleansing’ (in inverted commas, with the inherent meaning) it was a desperate attempt to draw attention and urgency to the serious violations of human rights.

A literal translation of the Serbo-Croatian phrase ‘etnicheskoye chis cheniye’, ethnic cleansing can also include the destruction of all remnants of an ethnic group from a geographical area, including monuments, cemeteries, and places of worship.

Therefore, considering the information that Uthaya is privy to, ‘ethnic cleansing’ a la Malaysia is not too farfetched after all. Uthaya’s letter is a reflection of the ground reality.

The racial attacks by Malay mobs in Kampong Medan that targeted the Indian Malaysian poor in full view of the Malay-dominated police force, allowing the culprits to go scot-free; and the refusal to hold an inquest into an incident that claimed at least five lives and maybe a hundred injured, some crippled or disabled for life, exemplifies this.

How publicising all this justifies criminalisation under the draconian Internal Security Act and Sedition Act defies logic.

We are dismayed by the selective use of the Sedition Act, where those who indulge in hate speech and threaten violence on ethnic minorities go scot-free while lawyers and activists are persecuted for carrying out their legitimate duties and exercising their right to free speech.

Nevertheless, as a matter of principle, Uthaya has served out his sentence and will be “back in business” upon release.

In solidarity with his struggle, the enlightened public will join the larger Hindraf family in welcoming Uthaya at the gate of the Kajang Prison at 8.30am on Friday, Oct 3, October 2014.

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SU KUMAR is Hindraf deputy information chief.