Ethnic Indians seek monarch's help in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, July 12

Alleging discrimination, a group of 20 ethnic Indians in Malaysia have approached the country's royal constitutional head for more scholarships and loans to help deserving students pursue higher studies.

Activists of the Human Rights Party (HRP) turned up Sunday outside Istana Negara, the royal palace here, to hand over a memorandum seeking the king's intervention to help top Indian students.

In Malaysia, such protests require prior police permission.

No untoward incident occurred as a group of policemen stood by to monitor the situation, The Star newspaper said.

They were seeking the king's intervention to help top Indian students secure Public Service Depart­ment scholarships and study loans as well as university and matriculation places.

The HRP claimed that over 2,000 Indian students had their applications for scholarships rejected by the government despite passing their exams with flying colours.

The group was led by HRP secretary-general P. Uthayakumar, who was one of the leaders of the banned Hindu Rights Action Front (Hindraf), detained for staging a rally to protest discrimination against ethnic Indians.

Malaysia is home to 1.7 million Indians, a bulk of them Tamil Hindus who migrated here during the British era.

P. Uthayakumar