Several ministers and NGO leaders are slamming the "intervention" as a rude and uncouth gate-crashing of a fine event.
They see the all-red participation as threatening.
Although the colour red is historically associated with upheavals and the upper classes see it as threatening and although Hindraf has acquired a radical tinge since the Nov 25, 2007 mass rally, the truth is otherwise.
"We went to celebrate Hari Raya with our leaders, to pay our respects and humbly submit a petition calling for the release of the Hindraf 5 and all other ISA detainees," said Hindraf national co-ordinator R.S. Thanenthiran.
"We did not threaten anybody... we love peace. We are a peace-loving movement," he told The Malaysian Insider.
By this "intervention" and other numerous similar events over the past year Hindraf and its supporters are really striving for inclusiveness, acceptance and recognition by the authorities as bona fide members of the diverse Malaysian family.
But unfortunately before and after Nov 25 what they have got thus far is exclusion, neglect and inequitable treatment by the government and the other classes.
Now they are being demonised as uncultured, disrespectful and even anti-Islam for trying to visit Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and give him a Hari Raya present — a teddy bear and a greeting card — and urge him to release the five Hindraf leaders in ISA detention since December 2007.
This trend is unhealthy and nothing could be far from the truth. There is an urgent need for understanding, compassion and acceptance by the authorities of Hindraf, its members and the deep-seated grievances that propel the movement.
Government leaders need to become more knowledgeable of Tamil society and the deep divisions within this minority in order to better understand the dynamics that gave birth to the Hindraf movement.
There is an urgent need to think out of the box and find ways to accommodate Hindraf in the larger Malaysian political landscape.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal have done the government a disservice by criticising the movement.
Shafie, with his "unity and heritage" portfolio, should have known better about the history of the working class within the Tamil minority which at one time was the flesh and blood of the MIC but later moved away to populate the Indian Progressive Front led by the late Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan.
While Hindraf has middle-class Tamil leadership, its core support group is the same Tamil working class that once supported the MIC and IPF.
These are the same people who gave the BN-MIC victory after victory in the last 50 years and gave them one final victory in the Ijok by-election on April 28, 2007.
The BN should remember their unstinting support over the decades. The question is whether they got anything in return.
The Tamil working class virtually ended up in a state of destitution in a land of plenty.
During the boom years when the rubber and oil palm plantations were redeveloped into luxury homes, golf courses and new townships, Tamil families were uprooted and ended up as railway line squatters, in rumah panjangs and in cheap crowded flats.
Naturally many in the most marginalised of Malaysian communities would be heavily involved in crime and gangsterism in a proportion far larger than the size of their population.
The authorities need to understand why the Tamil working class now coalesces under the Hindraf banner.
The BN government remains in denial, still believing the MIC can deliver and can win back support.
The Tamil working class needs jobs, skills training and financial help. Above all they need acceptance and recognition as a marginalised people.
It is therefore unhealthy and defeatist to see Hindraf supporters as rude, uneducated or uncultured people who have gate-crashed a decent, respectable Hari Raya function.
It is improper to imply that Hindraf supporters by their dressing and persistence to meet Abdullah had sullied a decent national event.
Hindraf is seeking acceptance, recognition and friendship but since Nov 25 it has only seen rejection.
The best thing that Syed Hamid and Shafie can do for themselves and for the BN is to perhaps ask the Cabinet to free the Hindraf 5 and all other ISA detainees.
Freeing the Hindraf 5 would help heal the anger in the Indian community which sees their continued detention as an unjust and vindictive act.
Freedom should also be immediately followed up with a well thought out and consistent socio-economic and financial package managed by a special purpose government agency to help the Tamil working class.
This is not the time to fear the colour red.
- The Malaysian Insider
Is this what Hari Raya was all about in PWTC? Let all the Hindraf members attend TDM's open house and lets see what he says ?