Below is a letter from Karanraj Sathianathan, via e-mail, published in FMT LETTER on 14 December 2011.Uthaya Sankar SB Sir! I feel there are discrepancies in the figures you quoted in your article, ‘Interlok dan MIC . What I know is, there are 106 corrections to be made (87 about Indians and Hindu Religion, 18 about Chinese and 1 about Malays).
Was the Education Minister informed of this during the meeting between you and other members of the panel? After some misunderstanding you and other two Indians withdrew from the panel. The minister then asked Palanivel and Subramaniam to persuade you three to meet him along with these two so-called Indian leaders.
At that meeting Muhyiddin agreed to amend all the 106 mistakes and promised that new books would be printed. So, the Interlok issue was settled.
But the very next day in Parliament, he announced that MIC and three Indian panellists agreed to make 19 amendments. And with this, the issue was settled and the book was to be used as a Bahasa Malaysia text book for SPM.
The four MIC MPs – Subramaniam, Devamany, Saravanan and Kamalanathan just kept their mouths shut, fearing if they told the truth, their Umno tuans will severely punish them. After all they entered politics for selfish reasons.
Only Ipoh Barat MP Kulasegaran stood up and argued against using the book in schools. But no PR MP ever tried to support their fellow MPs but Barisan MPs stood up to support their DPM. With that, the matter was left hanging. But Indian NGOs and Hindus took up the issue with even Hindraf and HRP participating.
Several major groups are still advocating banning Interlok, the most active was headed by Haji Tasleem. Memos have been sent to the BN government, Sultans and Agong. But all those idiots who claim they are Indian community leaders kept lying and cheating the Indian community.
On Dec 11, 2011 in the Sunday edition of Nanban, it was reported that Palanivel was asked by reporters what was the opinion of the MIC on interlok issue. Palani the worst coward in MIC history – asked how many people objected to using interlok in schools. He said there were no sensitive words in it as all sensitive words had been removed.
When reporters asked then why Haji Tasleem was still opposing Interlok, Palani reply was: “Let him talk what he likes. At present I’m not the leader of the Indian community as Haji Tasleem has become the leader of Indian community in Malaysia.” And with these words, he stormed out of the room.
We have to ask these MIC guys who choose them as leaders of Malaysian Indians, people like Palanivel, S Samy Vellu (still alive and taking over all Indians’ assets), Subramaniam, Devamany, Saravanan, hand-kisser Kamalanathan, Kayvias, Harris, Sambanthan, Murali, Danendran, Murugiah, Sothinathan, Rajagopalu, 2 Mohans, Veerasingam, Balakrishnan, etc, etc, etc.
Are these selfish, greedy, liars our leaders? What are they doing about racist BTN courses? Are they going get back the lost recognition for Tamil Language and Literature in SPM? When are they going to secure places in universities, matriculation, medical colleges, civil service, GLCs according to our population i.e. 8% according to Samy Vellu in his Deepavali message in the Tamil dailies?
(Published in Free Malaysia Today on 14 December 2011. Note: I can only answer the questions related to Interlok Edisi Murid and all the answers are HERE.)