ANALYSIS The thrust of Hindraf’s 18-point demands, contained in a memorandum handed to the prime minister on Thursday, is that Article 153 of the federal constitution and the so-called Malay special privileges must end and now.

The federal constitution like any other constitution, written or unwritten, is a social contract but it has undoubtedly been observed more often than not in the breach.

The ad-hoc apolitical human rights movement feels that it is the unilateral extension of a distorted and deviant form of Article 153 to every facet of life in Malaysia that has brought the Indian underclass in particular to its collective and current degrading status at the bottom of the...