If we are talking of things India can do but won’t I prefer the idea the GOI sending a boats over to test out some of that fancy hardware we keep hearing about.

You can’t be serious? I should probably just assume you are speaking tongue-in-cheek and move on, but I have trouble moving on from such dangerous ideas even when they’re supposedly jokes — actually, especially when they’re supposedly jokes, because there’s nothing really funny about “preferring” the idea of one country bombing another. Not to mention the undelicious irony of the wish: you want India to bomb Malaysia to protect ethnic Indians there? You mean like the US bombed Iraq to protect Iraqis? We all know what a success that’s been.

Let’s not bandy these threats about flippantly. If nothing else, it distracts from the types of action that can and should be taken. No other country — let alone the UN — has put any significant diplomatic pressure on Malaysia to end its racial politics and give all its citizens equal rights.

Agricultural products — It was the mainstay of their economy once upon a time but its percentage of the economy has waned a lot. One thing Malaysia has been sensitive about for a long time is how India treats Palm Oil imports from Malaysia — we are its biggest customer by far. So India does have some influence.

But realistically, given our Dhimmi govt, any talk of an economic boycott is fanciful . In fact the Malaysian leaders have praised the Gov’t of India on its stance so far. If we are talking of things India can do but won’t I prefer the idea the GOI sending a boats over to test out some of that fancy hardware we keep hearing about

This should be interesting : Gandhigiri on Feb 16 when 10 000 malaysian indians plan to gift roses to the country’s premier and awaken his compassion for their plight.

Don’t you mean “India is content to let Sri Lanka burn and leave its economy in a shambles”? Afterall, India did arm, train and fund the LTTE and politicians from its southern state of Tamil Nadu continue to voice support for the banned organisation and smuggling of arms and ammunition continues to occur. This is a country that now wants a seat in the Security Council at the UN. BTW, Sri Lanka’s economy whilst not the best it could be, is hardly in “shambles”, infact it has been growing at the rate of 6-7% per year, the country entered the group of middle-income countries 2 years ago (to compare, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal are still low-income economies), and its people have the highest per capita incomes in South Asia. But of course when you have a war that’s what usually makes the front pages.

The Malaysian mainstream media, like its Singapore counterparts, is heavily government controlled and censored.Almost all the media coverage after the November rallies – Bersih, Hindraf- were 99% slanted to the official viewpoint. Many malaysians rely on the internet blogs – Malaysiakini (check out their videos on youtube) and Malaysia today – for better and more critical news coverage. There was even a flash mob last weekend at the KLCC to dump msm newspapers into rubbishbins, to give you an idea of how much some malaysians trust their msm. See this blog by a malay-indian lawyer activist : http://harismibrahim.wordpress.com/hartal-boycott-the-lying-newspapers/ Since the Hindraf rally, the international media has been highlighting malaysian issues with a greater awareness of the problems there. That is for the good as Malaysia is sensitive to international opinion as it has deliberately set out to portray itself as a leading, progressive and moderate muslim nation, even one with high civilisational aspirations a la Islam Hadhdari.

I would agree with brownelf that what goes on in Malaysia deserves the apartheid tag. As a Singaporean I worry about Malaysia as chaos there would have an immediate impact on my natioan state – we were a single country once afterall! The very restive southern Thailand provinces would also be affected as the muslim terrorists there – sorry to be so blunt but what else do you call those who would behead novice monks, torch schools and kill over 2000 people in the last couple of years?- gain sustenance, sanctuary and support from their malay-muslim cohorts over the border. The east malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak play hosts to all sorts of illegal migrants and miscreants from the screwed up southern Philippino muslim insurgency.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/05/asia/AS-GEN-Malaysia-Protest.php