Singh praises Malaysian multiculturalism

Jaishree Balasubramanian
Brickfields (Malaysia), Oct 27 (PTI) To the resounding
beats of 'Gattam' and the mellifluous 'Nadaswaram', Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was Wednesday welcomed by
hundreds of ethnic Indians enthusiastically here, where he
heaped praise on Malaysia for its multiculturalism and
multi-ethnicity.
"Malaysia represents the very best of Asia, it is
diverse, welcoming and simply beautiful," Singh told the crowd
as he inaugurated the ethnic Indian shopping enclave of
Brickfields which has been renamed 'Little India' along with
his counterpart Najib Razak at a colourful ceremony.
He noted that this southeast Asian country, which has
a majority Malay Muslim population, was an example for
tolerance and peaceful coexistence "what we are trying to do
back home in India."
The other components of Malaysia's 27 million people
are 25 per cent ethnic Chinese and eight per cent ethnic
Indians, who are mostly Hindus from the south Indian state of
Tamil Nadu.
Najib, since he took office in April last year, has
been propagating 'One Malaysia' concept, embodying equal
opportunities for all the three main races in the country.
Sixty school children, dressed in colourful ethnic
clothes of the three races, performed a dance to a one
Malaysia song which had lyrics in Malay language, Chinese and
Tamil.
This was followed by a spectacular Odissi dance
performance by Malaysia's famous Indian classical dancer,
Ramli Ibrahim, who incidentally is a Malay Muslim.
Ramli has recently returned from a dance tour of the
south Indian city of Chennai, capital of tamil Nadu state.
Singh in his brief speech noted that Malaysia and
India had a lot in common and could learn enormously from each
other. He also noted that the ethnic Indian community had made
important contributions to the Malaysian development for the
last 100 years.
A majority of Indians' ancestors were brought by the
British to the then Malaya from Tamil Nadu as indentured
labourers to work at the rubber plantations and road building.
"The Malaysian government's decision to dedicate this
Indian enclave of Brickfields as Little India is a tribute to
the continuation of Malaysians of Indian-origin and their
development in this country," he said, before both the prime
ministers pressed a button to bring down a curtain covering a
huge fountain which then lit up and spouted water marking the
official opening of the newly renamed area.
The fountain is touted to be the highest in this
country and is a copy of a fountain in Chennai. India has said
it will gift a traditional gate to be put at the entrance of
little India. PTI