| Jan 1990 |
Last month's controversy continues over the alleged videotape sex scandal in which the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, a Malaysian Indian, Mr. Vijandran was seen having sex with several women. Vijandran filed a defamation case against a Tamil newspaper. Another Malaysian Indian, Mr. Karpal Singh, an MP and Vice-Chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), made the allegations in Parliament against the Deputy Speaker and accused the government of covering up the investigation. |
| Feb 1990 |
In the face of growing pressure from the public and Members of Parliament, the Deputy Speaker agreed to resign. Malaysian Indians celebrate the Hindu festival of vows and penances. |
| Jun 1990 |
The Malaysian and Indian Prime Ministers hold talks on cooperation and neighborly relations. |
| Oct 1990 |
The incumbent National Front coalition won 127 seats in the 180-seat parliament in the general election held early this month. 49 seats went to the combined opposition, a 5-party opposition alliance formed to contest the election. The Malaysian Indian Peoples' Front (MIPF), which held only one seat in the previous parliament, joined the alliance. Independent candidates won four seats. |
| May 1991 |
Malaysian Indians are being asked to have bigger families in order to ensure their political survival. The President of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) (a partner in the ruling coalition), Mr. Samy Vellu, who is also the Minister of Energy, Posts and Telecommunications, has urged Indians to have at least 5 children each. Otherwise, he argues a declining population is likely to be accompanied by an already declining political influence. Critics of such a policy argue that increased numbers will bring more poverty to the already afflicted majority of ethnic Indians. |
| Jun 1991 |
During a parliamentary debate the MIC leader was criticized for wearing expensive suits, while many MIC followers live in poverty. Ethnic Indians comprise 9% of the total population, but they account for only 1% of corporate wealth. Indian police have taken the investigation of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination to Malaysia; some ethnic Indians are alleged to have been involved in the May 1991 assassination. |
| Dec 1991 |
Malaysian police have uncovered an Indian-LTTE conspiracy: three Malaysian Indians of Tamil origin were said to have met members of the LTTE in London shortly before the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Gandhi. One of them was believed to have been killed while photographing Gandhi at the meeting. |
| May 1 - Jun 30, 1992 |
Opposition leaders continued to claim that 10 million shares of the giant utility Malaysia Telekom have been diverted to companies linked to the MIC President Samy Vellu. Vellu responded by indicating that the proceeds from the sale of 9 million shares were used to pay for setting up a college for Indian students. The Prime Minister has asked the Telecommunications Minister to inform the cabinet about the issue. Earlier, the Minister obtained an injunction restraining a Tamil magazine Thootan and its editor from publishing articles on his involvement in the Telecom shares issue. The opposition DAP demanded the resignation of the Minister. |
| Jul 1992 |
The former Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Vijandran, who was allegedly involved in a video sex scandal, was removed from the post of Secretary General of the MIC. |
| Oct 1992 |
Mr. Samy Vellu, incumbent President of the MIC, has again won the party presidency with overwhelming support. This is his fifth consecutive term. The MIC president urged members to support the party's move to adopt UMNO's (United Malaya National Organization, the party of the majority Malayas) system of decentralized leadership so that they can meet the challenges of the coming century. |
| Dec 1992 |
The MIC president has called for a Hindu Religious Council to be formed to look into religious problems and to mediate between the people and the government. Samy Vellu directed the National Hindu Sangam, an Indian cultural and religious body, to determine how the proposed Council should be set up. Some Indians are resentful of the government's demolition of some Hindu temples built indiscriminately. The MIC President urged Indians to refrain from building temples indiscriminately. |
| Jan 1993 |
The Youth wing of the MIC urges the government to review a ruling requiring Indian nationals to obtain a reference visa and local guarantors before they can enter the country. |
| Feb 1993 |
Malaysia signs a defence pact with India, under which the former is likely to buy 30 MIG-29s from the latter. India produces MIGs under license from Russia. |
| Aug 1993 |
Mr. P. Tamilmani, editor of the Tamil Weekly Thoothan (Courier) has been fasting at the foot of a Hindu temple near the capital in protest against the government's dilly dallying in the Telecom shares case involving the MIC President. |
| Jun 1994 |
Malaysian Telecom Minister and MIC President, Samy Vellu, is testing a device to screen abusive calls on his home telephone before putting it on the market. The Minister said he gets 700 to 800 calls a day and about half of them are abusive. With the device, subscribers could program in the telephone numbers of relatives and friends, so only their calls will get through (Reuters, 06/14/94). Parliamentary opposition and DAP leader, L.K. Siang, urged the government to restore the publishing license of the Tamil bi-Weekly Thoothan. The license was withdrawn recently by the Home Ministry without any apparent reason. Thoothan had carried numerous reports about allegations of corruption against MIC president Samy Vellu.(The Strait Times, 06/24/94). |
| Jul 1994 |
Malaysian Indians form a disproportionate percentage of those suffering from four major social problems in the country, according to Deputy Human Resources Minister M. Mahalingam. The problems are: juvenile delinquency and crime, neglect of old parents, abandoned children and alcoholism. The Minister said, however, the Indian community was not as poor as widely believed. He quoted statistics from Social Development Trends Bulletin 1980-90, that stated the monthly mean gross household income by ethnic groups was M$ 868 (US$ 512) for Bumiputras, M$ 1089 for Indians and M$ 1430 for Chinese. (The Strait Times, 07/10/94). |
| Dec 1994 |
Despite Malaysia's economic success, the Indian community faces the danger of being left out unless it receives direct assistance from the government, the MIC President said (The Strait Times, 12/12/94). The majority of Indians, trapped in the traditional real estate sector, face difficulty in trying to ride the wave of rapid industrialization that demands high professional skills. |
| Jan 1995 |
The MIC President opened the 10th annual general meeting of the Permim (Federation of Indian Muslim Associations in Malaysia) and called on Muslims to think of themselves as Indians first (The Strait Times, 01/04/95). |
| Mar 1995 |
A historic charter was signed by the 14 political parties that comprise the ruling National Front government. The National Front Charter and People's Declaration is expected to pave the way for the establishment of a multi-racial Malaysian party. Among the signatories were the presidents of the Malaysian Indian Congress and the Malaysian Chinese Association (The Straits Times, Singapore, 03/26/95). |
| Apr 1995 |
The governing National Front, led by Prime Minister Mohamad, secured a landslide victory in national elections on April 25. The NF, which a coalition of 14 parties from the major ethnic and religious communities including the MIC, won 162 out of 192 parliamentary seats and 338/394 state seats. The opposition DAP suffered a major defeat, winning only 9 federal seats and 11/394 seats in state polls (International Herald Tribune, 04/27/95; Reuter Textline: Sydney Morning Herald, 04/27/95). |
| May 1995 |
The MIC will take action against students who have not repaid their loans to the organization's education arm. More than M$ 13 million is still owed by about 4300 students (The Straits Times, Singapore, 05/12/95). |
| Jun 1995 |
A scheme aimed at providing loans to small businesses will be established by the Malaysian Indian Congress. The organization has formed an arrangement with a private bank in order to provide the funds to improve the living standard of the Indian community (Business Times, Malaysia, 06/19/95). |
| Jul 1995 |
The Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs and MIC Deputy President, Datuk Subramaniam, says that ethnic Indians are about to become the country's most economically disadvantaged community. Indians, he reports, hold less than 1% of the corporate wealth yet comprise just under 10% of the population. Subramaniam urged Indians to expand into the areas of food production and manufacturing (The Straits Times, Singapore, 07/28/95). |
| Aug 1995 |
The former editor of the Tamil weekly Toothan will remain in prison indefinitely after a High Court rejected his apology. The editor was jailed for disobeying an injunction against printing stories that linked MIC President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu with the Telekom shares scandal (The Straits Times, Singapore, 08/27/95). |
| Aug 28, 1995 |
Under the Schools of Vision Programme, Malaysia's vernacular primary schools will merge with national ones. Three schools - national, Tamil, and Chinese - will share a common compound and facilities while maintaining their own administration and medium of instruction (The Straits Times, Singapore, 08/28/95). |
| Sep 1995 |
The National Union of Journalists has accused MIC President Samy Vellu of issuing death threats against a reporter from a local English newspaper. The English newspaper quoted a Universiti Malaya professor as saying that Malaysian Tamils from India were of a lower caste than those who arrived from Sri Lanka. Samy Vellu has denied the charge; he stated that the article might encourage the characterization of the Tamils as uncultured and low-caste people (The Straits Times, Singapore, 09/25/95). |
| Sep 26, 1995 |
The Malaysian Home Ministry has expressed its concern over what it says is the high number of Indians reportedly involved in gangsterism, drug addiction, trafficking, and other crimes. The government indicates that in Penang alone there are 433 gangs that prey on the Indian community. These numbers are alleged to be proportionally much higher than the approximately 10% ratio of Indians in Malaysia (The Straits Times, Singapore, 09/26/95). |
| Oct 1995 |
Some members of the MIC are among 700 people who were believed to be involved in the illegal sale of samsu (alcohol). It is reported that youths from other communities are also drinking samsu, indicating that it is no longer an Indian community problem (The Straits Times, Singapore, 10/04/95). |
| May 12, 1996 |
A Malaysian activist, speaking on the occasion of the 27th anniversary of race riots in the country, noted the rise of latent racial tension in Malaysia linked to concerns about slowing economic growth. (AFP) |
| Aug 1996 |
The government announced the creation of a state-run trust fund aimed at distributing the nation's wealth to all people of all of Malaysia's ethnic groups, breaking with the trend of government-run trusts aiding only people in groups indigenous to Malaysia. The $1.2 billion fund attempts to promote savings and provide financing for infrastructure and privatized projects. Prime Minister Mahathir says that this trust does not indicate that the government plans to eliminate the New Economic Policy. He maintains that the NEP is still essential to correct existing disparities (The Reuters Asia-Pacific Business Report, 08/28/96; Asiaweek, 9/27/96). |
| Aug 17, 1996 |
In a speech on how Malaysia has achieved racial harmony, Prime Minister Mohamed cited the wide support by all people in Malaysia for the program of affirmative action in favor of bumiputras (indigenous people, but in practice Malays). He argued that people of all ethnic backgrounds in the country accept preference program as the driving force behind political stability, as it reduced racial disparities. (The Straits Times [Singapore]) |
| Sep 29, 1996 |
It was announced that 30,000 members of the Indian Progressive Front (IPF) planned to join the 340,000-member MIC in November. In 1995, the MIC successfully thwarted the IPF’s effort to join the National Front. (Xinhua News Agency) |
| Oct 1, 1996 |
Samy Vellu encouraged Indian entrepreneurs to consider joint ventures with Malays to help the Indian community upgrade and diversify its businesses. (The Straits Times [Singapore]) |
| Dec 15, 1996 |
Malaysia's government forced a group of NGOs--representing indigenous peoples, foreign and estate workers, and women in the country--to postpone a scheduled forum on alleged abuse of police power in Malaysia. Government officials threatened to invoke the Internal Security Act and detain the organizers of the forum if they held it as planned. (AFP) |
| Jan 1997 |
The MIC launched a campaign to prevent Indian women from marrying any of the influx of migrant workers who have recently come to Malaysia following a period of rapid economic growth. The Indian campaign focuses on Bangladeshi workers who have arrived in Malaysia, and many claim that this is an example of blatant racism by the Indian community. (InterPress Service, January 8, January 13) |
| May 23, 1997 |
In an interview with the Financial Times (London), Prime Minister Mahathir indicated that, given the situation of full employment and resultant worker shortages in Malaysia, the government would soon relax some of the economic policies which favor indigenous people in Malaysia. He noted that rules requiring 30 percent bumiputra-ownership of a company's equity have already been dropped in the IT industry in an effort to ensure the sector's continued growth in the country. |
| Jun 8, 1997 |
An independent survey discovered that Malaysia, along with China and Singapore, has the most heavily censored media in Asia. The Philippines and Hong Kong have the freest media in the region. (AFP) |
| Jul 1, 1997 - Aug 31, 1998 |
Following the collapse of Thailand’s economy, the Malaysian ringgit fell 60 percent to the US dollar during this period, and $(US)119 million dollars were lost on the stock market as the country’s GDP experienced a sudden and dramatic fall. Mahathir pushed an austerity plan for the country, indefinitely deferring infrastructure programs and encouraging Malaysians to buy locally produced goods. (AFP, January 27, August 30, 1998) |
| Sep 21 - Nov 20, 1997 |
Malaysia’s economic condition continues to worsen, fueling suggestions from the international community that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed should resign his post as the leader of the country. Mohamed retained the loyal following of the supporters of the groups that make up his backing National Front coalition. The MIC, like other parties in the country, passed a resolution expressing its support of the prime minister, who also serves as the president of UMNO, while the US congress drafted a resolution calling for the prime minister’s resignation. (AFP, October 5, November 19) |
| Feb 26, 1998 |
The Malaysian government announced that it would soon expand its program of economic liberalization aimed at facilitating foreign equity ownership. Non-Bumiputra firms—including those owned by foreigners or by minorities in Malaysia--would now be permitted to buy Bumiputra (Malay) firms. Since 1969, national policy dictated that Malays had to own at least 30 percent of each corporation. (Asia Pulse; AFP, April 9) |
| Mar 1, 1998 |
Tensions, and subsequent clashes, emerged in the northern state of Penang between Hindus (Indians and Chinese) and Muslims (mostly Malays). Officials in Penang closed a 50-year-old Hindu temple near a mosque, around which the tensions were centered, to try to ease the problem. Six hundred policemen arrested over 100 people—mostly youths—involved in fights in the region. Authorities decided to relocate the temple, which had recently expanded, to defuse the tensions. (AFP, March 23, March 28, March 29) |
| Apr 9, 1998 |
Deputy Prime Minister Anwar announced that the decision to ease ownership laws and to allow members of minority groups to own corporations was a permanent policy change. The government will still work to ensure that indigenous Malays still control about 30 percent of the corporate sector in general but will not mandate that at least one-third of each company be owned by Bumiputras. (AFP) |
| Jun 10, 1998 |
One-hundred and fifty plantation workers protested to the prime minister the continuation of a colonial wage structure for plantation workers, a sector of the economy dominated by ethnic-Indians. Agriculture is one of the few industries doing well during the economic downturn in Malaysia, but workers saw little if any of the profits and weren’t even guaranteed a minimum wage for the work they do. (AFP) |
| Aug 30, 1998 |
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed recognized that Malaysia was in an economic recession and stated that racial harmony and political stability would be the keys to economic recovery. (AFP) |
| Sep 3, 1998 |
Concerns about the political stability of Malaysia are compounded after Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was ousted from his office amid accusations of sexual impropriety, accepting bribes, and compromising national security. People of all ethnic backgrounds rally behind Anwar, who denies the charges, and launches a challenge to the prime minister. (AFP, September 5) |
| Sep 20, 1998 |
Malaysian police arrest Anwar, which unleashes a series of mass political protests (of mostly Malay people) in Kuala Lampur despite warnings by police against such rallies. Human rights activists and lawyers expressed grave concerns about the bases of Anwar’s arrest and his treatment while in detention, and Anwar’s wife carried on his campaign for political reform. (AFP, September 23, October 10) |
| May 13, 1999 |
Prime Minister and UMNO leader Mahathir warned party members to stay vigilant to the threat of rising opposition parties. The statement was geared to discourage people—especially women—from aligning with the multiracial National Justice Party, begun by Anwar’s wife, Azizah, after his arrest and sentence of 6 years for four charges of corruption. (AFP, May 13, June 6) |
| Jun 19, 1999 |
MIC leader Samy Vellu called upon Malaysia’s Indian community to shed its collective mindset of being a poor, underperforming group in the country. Samy Vellu pointed out that studies demonstrate that Indians have a higher household growth rate than Chinese or Malays and criticized Malay Indians who believed that these data were false. (Bernama) |
| Jul 31, 1999 |
In anticipation of upcoming elections, Prime Minister Mahathir appealed to ethnic-Indians in Malaysia to support the ruling National Front and to not be duped by promises from unproven opposition parties. MIC leader Samy Vellu supports the National Front and the Prime Minister. (AFP) |
| Jun 21, 2006 |
Approximately 20 Indian Hindus staged a peaceful protest to appeal to Malaysia's king to halt the demolition of Hindu temples and shrines. (The Statesman, 6/22/06, "Malaysia Hindus Want Shrines Saved") |
