UK faces $4-trillion colonial suit (Reparations to compensate alleged atrocities against Indians)

iAfrica.com / AFP ^ | September 9, 2007

[Stoat]

UK faces $4-trillion colonial suit

Sun, 09 Sep 2007

 

A Malaysian human rights lawyer has filed a $4-trillion lawsuit against Britain for alleged atrocities suffered by Indians whose forefathers were brought as indentured labourers to Malaysia during colonial rule.

Seeking £1-million compensation for each of the currently estimated two million Indian Malaysians, the suit was filed in London last week, Ponnusamy Waytha Moorthy told reporters in Washington on a trip to brief the US Congress and rights groups on the issue.

"The colossal suit reflects the years of pain, suffering, humiliation, discrimination and continuous colonialisation under the current Malaysian government," he said.

British negligence

"It is also to highlight the negligence and failure of the British in not entrenching the rights of the minority Indians in the constitution when they granted Malaysia independence," he said.

Many Indians were brought to Malaysia from southern India as indentured labour by the British, but their future generations "were left high and dry" when the colonial power left the country, Waytha Moorthy said.

"There has been segregation, discrimination, marginalisation and other abuses of Indian Malaysians," he said.

Ethnic Indians and Chinese are minority groups in Malaysia, whose 26 million population is predominantly Malay.

The resource-rich country, which won independence in 1957 from Britain, has blossomed into one of Southeast Asia's top economies.

But Waytha Moorthy said 70 percent of Indian Malaysians were poor, with many in the middle and upper classes of the community migrating overseas.

"The future is bleak and we took this action because we have been pushed to the wall," he said.

Waytha Moorthy is also asking British courts to declare the Malaysian constitution null and void.

Who will handle the case?

He said he had three months to serve notice of the court action on the named defendant, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and added that at least one British law firm was considering handling his case on a pro bono basis.

T. Kumar, Amnesty International's Washington-based Asia-Pacific advocacy director, refused to comment on the legal suit but noted that the British colonial power had taken tens of thousands of Indians as indentured labourers to various parts of the globe.

Among them were South Africa, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji and Mauritius, he said.

AFP

[Stoat]

Make no mistake, Al Sharpton and John Conyers, and Maxine Waters are watching this closely.

Even if it goes nowhere, they will be interested in who benefits and how they can make changes in order to launch a more successful effort here in the USA.

[Stoat]

Ping

[XR7]

$4,000,000,000,000.00

[Pontiac]

"It is also to highlight the negligence and failure of the British in not entrenching the rights of the minority Indians in the constitution when they granted Malaysia independence," he said.

Waytha Moorthy is also asking British courts to declare the Malaysian constitution null and void.

If these people made any sense at all they might be dangerous.

On one hand they decry the evils of the British colonial period and on the other blame the British for not imposing their will on the Malaysians when they granted independence.

Had the British imposed forced the Malaysians to grant protections to the minorities in their constitution what would prevent the Malaysians from ignoring those protections or later removing those protections.

By what power is Britain to null the Malaysian Constitution.

[denydenydeny]

Where's the reparations lawsuit against the Muslims who conquered India in a much bloodier manner than the British did?

Why is the Muslim conquest of India (Will Durant calls it "the worst story in history" in Our Oriental Heritage) accepted as a normal course of events, while the British conquest was somehow alien and unjustified?

[Pontiac]

Many Indians were brought to Malaysia from southern India as indentured labour by the British, but their future generations "were left high and dry" when the colonial power left the country, Waytha Moorthy said.

If memory serves me indentured servitude was the practice where an individual contracts with another to trade a period of service to another for money or other considerations.

If that contract of servitude was made with out fraud and with transparency on both sides Britain can not be held liable for the conditions subsequent generations of those who willingly entered in to those contracts.

Even if there were fraud involved those contracts were likely with individual citizens of Great Britain and not with the government.

[sure_fine]

turd world nations follow turd leaders

[Stoat]

For reparations suits of this type (and of the kind that proponents would love to inflict upon America), the tenets of logic, truth, historical fact and reason must all be dispensed with. It’s all about a racist bid to win the lottery by inflicting as much guilt as possible upon a jury raised on Oprah, Phil Donahue and Jesse Jackson (and equivalents in the UK). Anytime logic or common sense is allowed to seep in, the entire effort crumbles, and so it’s essential that the white guilt component be front and center at all times.

[Stoat]

turd world nations follow turd leaders

Well-stated  :-)

[IslandJeff]

Only a matter of time until The Guardian coopts AFP’s efforts.

Unreal. Should Americans get in line somewhere?

[Stoat]

Unreal. Should Americans get in line somewhere?

Get in line to have the opportunity to pay for sins committed by long-dead perpetrators against long-dead victims?

Jesse, Al, John and Maxine would give that an emphatic YES!

[IslandJeff]

Stoatster Caveman,

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. My instinct is to laugh, because no one can see my face if I choose to cry. For now, I think I’ll just go to bed.

[Stoat]

Stoatster Caveman,

LMAO!

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. My instinct is to laugh, because no one can see my face if I choose to cry. For now, I think I’ll just go to bed.

You've hit on a good plan, I reckon.  Go to bed now and tomorrow be particularly congenial to our dear British Friends here on FR, as they have suffered greatly and if this suit gets any traction whatsoever, they will truly learn the meaning of the word 'shafted'.

Good night   :-)

 

 

Stoatster Caveman,

LMAO!

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. My instinct is to laugh, because no one can see my face if I choose to cry. For now, I think I’ll just go to bed.

[singfreedom]

Remarkable, isn’t it?

I thought convoluted legalistic B.S was proprietary to the U.S? I guess not.

Maybe if we all join the history revisionists we can save ourselves? We could just change history and omit the “bad” stuff.

[Pontiac]

We could just change history and omit the “bad” stuff.

It’s been done.

Remember how the press (NYT) treated “Uncle Joe” Stalin and his omelets.

[singfreedom]

How could I possibly forget!

I was just proposing that we “fix” all the rest of it, you know, the “troublesome” parts. /s

Actually, I think revisionist history is one of the worst jokes in the free world. Those of us who are truly interested in history know to do our own research to find the truth—no matter what anyone says.

[nyyankeefan]

UK faces $4-trillion colonial suit (Reparations to compensate alleged atrocities against Indians)

Make no mistake, Al Sharpton and John Conyers, and Maxine Waters are watching this closely.

b. Hussein obama is also monitoring this closely....his platform for ending poverty & racism in america!!!

[muawiyah]

The Indian "indentured laborers" were willing to sign on due to India's poverty and lack of opportunity. It's truly unfortunate that some of them made the mistake of agreeing to go to Malaya, then a semi-disorganized area with numerous Moslem mini-states, wild jungles filled with headhunters, high heat, higher humidity, and generally nasty circumstances ~ albeit, with great food, spices that knock the top off the Scovill Scale, and fantastic white beaches.

Any of the original "indentured laborers" who have a complaint about the conditions should petition "the current Malaysian government". Everybody else is, as it turns out, quite free to leave, and due to the wealth of the nation in general, higher education is widespread and folks can readily moxie up the bucks for the airfare to a different country.

[UKrepublican]

Oh my.

I think they’ve got no chance. lol

[Stoat]

b. Hussein obama is also monitoring this closely....his platform for ending poverty & racism in america!!!

I'm sure you're right....funny though, if he was truly sincere about ending poverty and racism in America he would do FAR better by advocating the complete dissolution of the Democrat party and a rollback of all "Great Society" programs, as a start.  People of his ilk have been the worst culprits, by far, in perpetuating racism and poverty.