{"id":1455,"date":"2007-11-23T21:44:32","date_gmt":"2007-11-23T13:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maddruid.com\/?p=1455"},"modified":"2009-03-16T20:40:17","modified_gmt":"2009-03-16T12:40:17","slug":"1450-of-mostly-uninterested-in-hindraf-but-interested-in-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/?p=1455","title":{"rendered":"[1450] Of mostly uninterested in HINDRAF but interested in liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"

News of demolition of Hindu temples by local authorities that comes to surface from time to time is indeed disturbing but its status on government land blurs the line between right and wrong. Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) is one of a number of entities that are trying to stop any temple from demolition.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I was uninterested in HINDRAF. It is partly to my slight inclination preferring not to have anything do to with religion as well as partly to me being undecided on the issue of temple demolition. I have read of mosques being torn down elsewhere and so I figured, what is so different with a Hindu temple?<\/p>\n

Some may have countered that point by stating some of these temples are decades old. Fair enough but I am still staying firm on the fence, with equal force pulling to both sides.<\/p>\n

That asides, HINDRAF’s action to drag the British government into local tussle \u2014 it is suing the British government for bringing Indians to Malaya, for exploiting them and then leaving them behind \u2014 sounds like a comedy. This Sunday, it plans to hold a rally in front of the British embassy, trying to get the British attention, and maybe trying to achieve the same success Bersih had achieved<\/a> just weeks earlier. It amuses me. At the same time, there is a slight disgust in me of HINDRAF; I am not comfortable of the idea of getting foreigners involved though perhaps, HINDRAF had exhausted all local avenues and had no other choice but this. That notwithstanding, I have a feeling that members of HINDRAF are saying that they wished that they had not been Malaysians. If indeed that is the message HINDRAF is sending, it is hard to sympathize with them. Whatever it might mean, I take that their action is merely as an attention grabber, attracting spotlights from across the sea to highlight the issues that HINDRAF is working on. It is a strategic rather than a be all, end all action. But I essentially did not care. It was a Hindu issue with complex background and too communal to fit my taste.<\/p>\n

I however start to care when outright transgression of liberty is happening. I start to care when the police begins to arrest individuals just because these individuals are expressing their opinion, however strong that opinion may be. I start to care when freedom to assemble is being robbed from free people.<\/p>\n

This issue has gone from a Hindu-centered issue to a question of liberty. To me, it stopped being an exclusively Hindu issue when the BN-led government decides to ban the rally. It stopped being a Hindu issue when the BN government arrested some leaders of HINDRAF under Sedition Act. It is the same case for the Bersih rally. While I believe Bersih demands are acceptable, I do not agree in bringing the monarch into politics; I have a republican tendency. But when the BN-led government decided to challenge liberty, I resolved to join the rally, despite my misgivings.<\/p>\n

Had the government in power shown more respect for liberty, I would have continued not to care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News of demolition of Hindu temples by local authorities that comes to surface from time to time is indeed disturbing but its status on government land blurs the line between right and wrong. Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) is one of a number of entities that are trying to stop any temple from demolition. Frankly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[347,344],"class_list":["post-1455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-hindraf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3181,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1455\/revisions\/3181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddruid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}