JAN. 2, SINGAPORE, JERVOIS ROAD—When I met him, Seelan Palay was reading a Tamil newspaper. He had not eaten in two and half days, had not had solid food in ten, and had not consumed more than one meal for seventeen. A third-generation Singaporean Tamil, Palay had whittled down his caloric intake gradually in preparation for a hunger strike. In time-honored South Asian tradition, the scruffy 23-year-old art school graduate was fasting in front of the Malaysian High Commission to protest government actions: in this case, neighboring Malaysia’s violent response to a peaceful rally of thousands of ethnic Indians at the end of November.
The November event, conducted under the umbrella of Malaysia’s Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF), has mobilized Palay even in Singapore, where restrictions on freedom of expression are par for the course. The grandson of a South Indian gardener and a gravedigger from northern Sri Lanka, Palay is an old hand at causing a stir. Palay, a painter and video artist, attended the rally in Kuala Lumpur, and says that what he saw there—as Indians peacefully protested the Malaysian government’s treatment of their minority—moved him to action. (Some reports, including one from major Malaysian news source Malaysiakini, put the numbers of that rally as high as 30,000. Other sources say 10,000 attended. Palay was there in part to document the action.) Malaysian police met those rallying with tear gas and water cannons. Palay says he was among those tear-gassed. The government has detained five of the group’s leaders under the Internal Security Act, which gives officials broad powers and has little transparency. Palay says each day of his hunger fast is for one of the detainees. He’s petitioning for them to be released, charged and tried in an open and transparent way. At this point, the Malaysian government has offered no answer.
“Everyone deserves a fair trial,†he says. “It’s very unfair. These people are not even asking for a change of government. They’re asking for a change of policy…. That kind of response was just uncalled for.â€
photo by Preston Merchant Palay says the Singaporean police have warned him to leave—they also asked him for an entertainment or exhibition license, but he told them his business was neither. He’s already well enough known to them from his other activism that they didn’t even ask for his national ID. When Malaysian High Commission officials started snapping pictures of his visitors, he says, he walked up to their guard booth to give them a better view. He aims to finish the fast and keep agitating for change of all kinds—preferably in protest-averse Singapore. (He’s also involved in animal rights issues and vegetarian groups.)
If I hadn’t known he was on a hunger strike, I would never have guessed it. Spare-framed but with a sturdy, steady look, Palay sounded articulate and energetic. Speaking over the buzz of an Indian laborer trimming the lawn of the spacious bungalow behind him that afternoon, Palay said he had received little support from Singaporean Indians.
What makes him willing to do this when so many other people are not?
“Because I understand that the culture of resistance, the freedom of expression is a universal concept,†he said.
“Sometimes a kind of indoctrination can make a whole generation and the generation to come suppress that kind of expression, but when I read history and when I read current affairs… There are protests everywhere, even in Malaysia. The lawyers march in the streets. That is all proof to me that just because I’m Singaporean and there’s no culture of this here—fine. I won’t wait for the change, I’ll make the change. I will set an example…. The people who are affected come here to show their appreciation. I get calls from Malaysia, and that is all I need to know. I am with them on this issue.â€
Palay drinks only water and has four bottles leaning against the trunk of his chosen tree; he’s had diarrhea for the past few days, fights headaches, and says his muscles feel the strain. Sporting a goatee and a short ponytail, he looks—and often sounds—like his American university-age counterparts.
Palay’s protest made the newspapers in Singapore, as did the upheaval in Malaysia. In Singapore, South Asians are treated as well as anyone else—the government does not systematically favor Malays and Muslims, as it does in Malaysia. There, government jobs and university seats are allotted with preferential treatment for Malays, and have been for decades. More recently, Hindus have complained of suspicious conversions to Islam: one widow was denied her husband’s body and was told after his death that he had converted to Islam. The man was buried; the widow is suing. But such cases are sometimes tossed between sharia (Muslim) courts and civil courts, leaving plaintiffs nowhere. Malaysians are grateful for Palay’s protest, he says—most days, those visiting him are Malaysian. Another friend, local human rights lawyer and anti-death penalty crusader M. Ravi, garlands him nightly. (Ravi’s not his lawyer yet. Seelan says that lawyers in Malaysia have said that if the Malaysian government denies him a visa to travel there, they will take up his cause.)
Palay’s other visitors that night also included an opposition party politician, Chee Siok Chin, who called Palay “rare.†Indeed, other young Singaporeans I spoke to during my visit told me its repressive attitudes towards open debate are part of what prompts them to go elsewhere.
His father, a taxi driver in Singapore, thinks that if Seelan is not afraid, he should do what he wants to do. But what about factory worker Amma?
“She cries a lot,†he conceded. But, “I had a personal experience. This is my personal response.â€
He’s got a plan for that first meal Saturday morning already: mango juice, tea—and two vadai. When we left him, he was at T-minus two days.
Aside: The government tried to link HINDRAF to the LTTE, but this seems to me ridiculous. See link here.
Seelan Palay’s blog
Photos by Preston Merchant
Consistent pressure has to be applied on Malaysia. This kind of silencing of minorities is no different from how the monks are intimidated by a military junta in Burma.
We have to draw attention to the fate of Indians who are minorities in places like Malaysia, Carib, E & S Africa, Fiji, etc.
Thank you for highlighting the suppression of Indians/South Asians in Singapore and Malaysia.
Seelan Palay is courageous man, and kudos to him… I travel internationally quite frequently.
I make it a point not use Singapore Air or visit there. I refuse to support the repressive Lew Yuan Kew regimes that suffocates political discourse.
just saw his blog. what a cool dude. funny seeing him and his buddies bring in 2008 with a “fuljuree.”
very well written post by the way. and Preston never disappoints with his pics.
Hey, he’s just a couple of hundred yards away from my apartment building!! I missed this, probably as a result of getting off my morning exercise routine over the holidays. The New Year’s resolution nags even more now. Will report.
Palay does not know what he is doing nor knows the five HINDRAF really are ie selfish political extremists in Malaysia. Malaysia is like Singapore, an independent nation and we as citizens must not interefer in each other domestic affairs. He must thank God that he is a Singaporean of Indian ethnic who is far better off than Malaysian Indians.
Hi
Fasting or Satyagraha is not a time honored South Asian Tradition. It is indeed a Indic tradition. When I say Indic I mean all non-Semitic traditions that originated in India. Please do not call this South Asian. When was the last time you heard a Pakistani or Bangladeshi undertake fasting to protest!
dishoom
dishoom
Google requires less effort than typing b-r-o-w-n and clicking on “Post.”
Nice post, V V. Looking forward to Malaysia!
I just want to say I feel horrible about what the Indians in Malaysia are going through. Sadly I don’t think much can be done (although I’d be happy to learn otherwise). I have visited Malaysia, talked to people, and the overall impression I got was that the Malays will never give up their bhumiputra policies. And that Malay society is becoming more rigidly Islamic as time goes on.
That being said, Indians did openly celebrate their culture, traditions, and religion. There were a lot of Tamil religious processions, as well as wedding processions that I personally witnessed just in the short time I was there. I was amazed that people 3 or 4 or more generations out of India still held on to their language and heritage. But the discontent of being a 2nd class citizen in the only country they knew, was very palpable. Malay people on the other hand strutted around like they owned the place…which I guess they have made sure they do.
Will get charged under ISA , go changi hotel long long time
Sounds like the way Gujarat’s going these days, or Nagaland under Christian extremists. Why do religious majorities over time always choose to exclude and be intolerant of other religious groups?
7 · ptr_vivek said
hehehehe.
Mr. Palay, I have to salute you for your courage to take up a fast in front of the Malaysian High Commission. Malaysians know better, the Malaysian High Commissioner will not bother for such practice and they have no respect for human kind either. You are a great guy, we in Malaysia will not forget your struggle for fellow human kind. Thank you.
Finally, Sepia Mutiny woke up and covered the malaysian indians issue.
Yes, and it had nothing to do with your tiresome, immature and disturbing antics. If anything, your threats and spamming delayed coverage, not that we expect that you will understand that, though for the sake of those whom you were pretending to agitate for, we wish you would.
V.V:
Great post, looking forward to more.
This link while bogus will certainly work for the Malaysian govt. Any group with the word “Hindu” in it or whose membership is nominally Hindu will be identified as a Hindutva fellow traveller by journalists & Leftist academics (i.e. most of them). HINDRAF pretty much assured themselves a chilly reception by the very choice of their name. The Economist had a recent issue focusing on religious inspired violence around the world and quite stupidly listed Sri Lanka as a Hindu-Buddhist conflict when it is in fact ethnolinguistic in basis. And Dalrymple reiterated the same stupidity by referring to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins as “Sri Lankan Hindu extremists” in today’s NYT .
15 · louiecypher said
Great catch, lc. Isn’t Prabhakaran himself Christian? (not that his religion has anything to do with his agenda, as far as I can tell). I think calling the LTTE Hindu extremists distracts from the very real and very different Hindu extremism in India, which I think is the dominant form.
I hear reports that his family converted, but in the Indian Tamil context at least this generally just means you add Jesus & biblical ethics to your existing pantheon of Muruga etc. But the point is that neither side of the conflict is motivated by religious animus. Even their mouthpieces avoid that kind of positioning, it’s Indian Hindutva sites that like to spin it as a Hindu/Buddhist conflict. Some people will point to govt. attacks on temples or rebel attempts to blow up Buddhist relic shrines as proof to the contrary, but they are attacking them as cultural institutions.
No, actually Prabakaran is NOT a Christian. Rather, a very religious Hindu. He often plans attacks using numerology as prediction for good fortune. However, he has named his first-born son, Charles Anthony, after the first Black Tiger, who sacrificed his life by spearheading an explosives packed van into a military camp, killing approximately 50 Singhalese soldiers.
Despite Prabakaran being a religious Hindu, he has wisely stayed away from advocating a Hindu nationalism, so as not to prevent any alienation of the Tamil Catholics in the liberation struggle. Also, as another reader noted, the conflict was predominantly been ethno-linguistic, however, when Jayawardene re-wrote the Constitution in 72, I believe that is the year, he enshrined “Buddhism with the foremost position” in the island, thus adding a religious dimension. However, it is interesting to note that in the mid 90s certain Hindu groups in India spoke out against the Singhalese army’s desecration and occupation of Hindu temples in the North & East.
Also, in a somewhat ironic twist, the LTTE since it’s inception has made moves to rid Eelam Tamil society of the caste system, dowry system, as well as the use of Sanskrit in Tamil.
The LTTE is a Tamil Hindu organisation. It uses Hindu philosophy to justify suicide bombings, notably the war between the Kuruvas and the Pandavas. According to them suicide bombers go to heaven. Prabhakaran is not Christian but a ‘low-caste’ Hindu. He comes from a fisherman’s family and only went to grade four before he dropped out. He began adult hood as a petty thief, stealing cattle and money before going on to assasinate the mayor of Jaffna. He is worshipped by many Sri Lankan Tamils as “Surya Devan” or “The Sun God” and his picture assumes a prominent place in Tamil Hindu home-shrines besides those of Shiva, Murugan and Ganapathi who are the main deities worshipped by Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus.
Tamil Hindus have carried out more suicide bombings than all the Muslim groups combined. That is a fact that is often left out by people who concentrate on suicide bombings as a Muslim phenomenon. The Tamil Tigers are the only group that have successfully assasinated two heads of state – Rajiv Gandhi of India and Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka.
The following video is quite dusturbing but it documents what Tamil Hindu suicide bombers are doing and what they have done in the past. A similar attack must have taken the life of Rajiv Gandhi, he was blown up when the Tamil suicide bomber was garlanding him.
It’s yet another Tamil-on-Tamil attack in Sri Lanka (yet the LTTE terms its struggle a “liberation struggle”):
Tamil Hindu Suicide Bomber – The Sari Clad Assasin
Sensitive people should NOT watch this.
7 · ptr_vivek said
you packed some solid punches there. nice work, hero.
9
Translating for the benefit of all…Will get charged under the Internal Security Act. Changi Hotel is a euphemism for the main penitentiary in Singapore.
It look’s more like a publicity stunt,rather than creating anything constructive.In malaysia the dominant race would be “malays”,in singapore it will be “Chinese”.It’s certainly true that singapore Indians in certain ways better than malaysian indians.But malaysian Indians do have their own achivements.The second richest man in malaysia is a ethnic Tamil (ananda Krishnan),who is worth around US$8Billion,richer than any singaporen.The richest tamil in singapore is around $700 million (late robert chandran).Doctors,Dentist,veternirarians,lawyers,teachers make up around more than 40% of them are indians.There is more than 156 Tamil verenacluar schools in malaysia in singapore (I think there is only one school in singapore,not sure it’s fuctioning).Last,but not least malays in singapore are at the “bottom” of the food-chain,in singapore.They faced the same or even worse discrimminations,which malaysian indians are facing.Just imagine,if the malaysian malays and Indonesians would advocate for more equal right’s to the malays,the same manner as Mr seelan attempted.I am sure,it will be the beginning of the regional instability.(Do,note southern philliphines,southern thailand,brunei,indonesia,malaysia and singapore malays are of the same ethnic group (regardless wether it’s malay,bugis,boyaness,sudanese,javanes..all have strong DNA resemblence).Indonesia,largest muslim nation in the world.It will be chaotic if they start protesting in same manner for the singapore malays.As,malaysian indian I feel,end of the day’s we malaysian indian alone can solve our problems.yes,there are problems..in which part of the world there is not? In some form singapore indians do face the discrimmination..I suggest MR seelan,concentrate on how deal with that issue’s.