Najib insults the Indian community with Zul Nordin's candidacy

INCUMBENT for Subang parliamentary seat, R. Sivarasa questions caretaker
prime minister, Najib Tun Razak's defence for Zul Nordin, who recently
stirred up a controversy over his derogatory remarks of Hindu deities.

He said, at least the MIC has some conscience over the selection of Zul
Nordin as a BN Candidate for Shah Alam. R. Sivarasa, was commenting on the latest development where a local leader and 103 others in MIC Shah Alam had quit because of the selection of Zul Nordin.
Sivarasa said his only explanation why Zul Nordin was selected could be
attributed to Najib's lack of sensitivity towards the people's sentiments,
like what happened in Penang recently when the audience already shouted
once, "NO!", yet he still asked, "Are you ready for Barisan Nasional?"

In Shah Alam, Zul Nordin is contesting for the parliamentary seat held by
incumbent, Khalid Samad of PAS. Sivarasa said that even the Malays in Shah
Alam cannot accept a candidate who calls the Indians, by the derogatory
name, "Kerling."


"If Zul Nordin is sincere and a winnable candidate, he can stand by his own
track record," he said. "However, what we noticed is that both Najib as a
caretaker prime minister and Zul Nordin only made good at the eleventh hour,
after what the Barisan Nasional Government had done to the marginalized
Indian community the past 56 years."

By making Zul Nordin the champion of Indian causes, Sivarasa said that Najib
is willing to ditch even MIC for championing the cause of the Indians. "This
means that the MIC is no longer relevant," he said. "And if MIC is
irrelevant, it means both UMNO and MCA are now totally irrelevant. Zul
Nordin might as well champion the cause of the Chinese as well."

"We want the people of Subang and Shah Alam to judge what Pakatan Rakyat have done for the India
community compared to what UMNO in the past had done. It is fitnah for Najib
and UMNO to say that several Hindu temples were being destroyed at
the instruction of the Selangor State Government," he said.

"If Tan Sri Khalid (caretaker MB of Selangor) had given the instruction to
destroy the Hindu temples, why did he have to face the protest of a group of
residents from Section 23 of Shah Alam when he tried to solve the issue
relating to the relocation Hindu temple?"

Sivarasa wants voters to now ask Najib who were the people involved in the
parade of the head of the Hindu's scared cow. "With the General Election,
Hindus should now ask Najib who were these people who stood behind the Home
Minister? Despite the fact that Shah Alam parliamentary constituency
incumbent, Khalid Samad had challenged Hishammuddin to name any PAS member
who participated in the parade, Hishammuddin had failed to provide even a
single name."

PAS, Sivarasa added, would not tolerate such a despicable act against the
Hindu community. "At that very juncture, not even Najib had spoken up
against the Umno members who finally had to face the music when public
pressure mounted," he said. "Again, why was Najib silent when A. Kugan died
in prison, and why had the Hindraf manifesto he signed as a caretaker prime
minister not taken into account the human rights aspects of the marginalized
Indian community?"

Najib should live up to his reputation, before he started to protect his
candidate, urging the people to believe that Zul Nordin, of all persons
would champion the cause of the marginalized community. "When Kugan died,
Zul Nordin did not even speak up on his behalf!" Sivarasa said. "In fact,
the family of the deceased had great difficulties asking for a second
postmortem."

from the Campaign Office of  R. Sivarasa

contact:  012 905 9948 (Peter Chong)