6. Indians at Crossroads

By M. Veera Pandiyan of The Star

Problems gnawing the community need to be looked at comprehensively and tackled through progressive, long-term solutions.

What lies ahead for the Indian community? That’s the question of the moment in the wake of the Nov 25 protest that saw thousands of Indians venting their anger and unhappiness in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

As for the sole party representing the community in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, the more pertinent questions are: Whither the MIC? or, Will the MIC wither?

The party is loath to admit it, but a great deal needs to be done to bring the majority of Indians back to its politics of consensus and compromise instead of letting them veer off into the perilous politics of confrontation.

To be fair, the MIC cannot be faulted for lacking in plans. The party has formulated a wide range of policies and programmes aimed at improving the economic standing of the community and, as its president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu has pointed out, these have been included in the 9th Malaysia Plan.

The party prides itself on having made tremendous improvements in the quality of education in Tamil primary schools as well as in providing more opportunities for Indian students to pursue higher education.

The Maju Institute of Educational Development, Kolej Tafe in Seremban and the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology in Kedah, are often cited as sterling successes accomplished by the party.

As for economic improvement, the party’s biggest headache is its investment arm, Maika Holdings, set up with some RM110mil raised from the community. The shares have since gone into a tailspin, and the company is now debt-ridden, with millions erased from its value.

The party’s leaders, however, shun talking about this, focusing more on the MIC’s successes in getting a slew of special allocations and grants and programmes in skills training for youths, micro credit loans and entrepreneurship training.

But many Indians feel that tangible help has not filtered down to those who need it most. The detractors dismiss the MIC’s efforts as “too little, too late and too ineffective” to bring about any major difference to the community.

On the positive side, the Nov 25 protest may have indirectly boosted the party’s voice in the coalition, and strengthened its hands to bring about a better deal for Indians.

The protest has definitely opened the eyes of its partners in the Barisan Nasional, who may now empathise a lot more with the MIC’s requests for effective, urgent measures.

On Monday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who was responding to the Hindu Rights Action Force’s (Hindraf) demands to meet Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said any such meeting must be held in the presence of MIC leaders.

“To meet Hindraf without the MIC means we agree that the MIC has failed, when it has not,” he stressed. “It will also be an act of disloyalty to the MIC, which has been a partner in the Barisan Nasional for the last 50 years.”

Although several other ministers have voiced opposition to the Prime Minister meeting Hindraf leaders, it might be a more savvy strategy than just demonising them in the media.

After all, the publicity generated from all the bashing so far has only resulted in three local lawyers, largely unknown outside of their community, let alone the world, becoming household names.

The primary focus of our leaders should be a comprehensive identification of the problems facing the Indian community and strategies to redress them.

Part of the quandary is that there are now four players – the MIC and PPP in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and the wannabe components of IPF and the newly created Malaysian Indian United Party – vying for the attention of two million Indians.

Hindraf’s entry has only brought a new and more dangerous equation to the issue. The hardline communal stance adopted by its leaders has not helped the Indian community’s cause.

Their words and actions have drawn implications of religious motivation to the fore, distracting attention from economic inequity, which remains the crux of the discontent.

Hindraf’s statements, which border on the seditious, and its preposterous claims that the Government is practising ethnic cleansing, as inked in their memorandum to the British government, have irked more than just the national leadership.

DAP chairman Karpal Singh is among Opposition leaders who are uncomfortable with Hindraf leaders' choice of words. Yesterday, he dispelled the “ethnic cleansing” claims as “baseless and untrue”.

The group's latest efforts to seek international support for its cause can only lead to more isolation from the national political process.

To go back to the angst of the Indian community, the deep-rooted dissatisfaction is unlikely to melt away easily or dissipate through stop-gap measures like special committees to look into their problems or hotlines to handle grouses.

As such, the onus is on our leaders to look at the problems facing the community conscientiously and devise progressive, long-term solutions.

Shallow politicians can of course claim that Indians do not have the numbers to make an impact in any of the electoral constituencies.

The wiser ones will realise the implications of any community’s frustrations and resentment in today’s globalised world.

Read it here.