MIC president S Samy Vellu may be confident his party has regained the support of the Indian community thanks to Prime Minister Najib Razak, but Pakatan Rakyat leaders are just as confident that he is wrong.
PKR vice-president Sivarasa Rasiah slammed the veteran MIC leader for trying to butter up Najib for his own political interests, and brushing aside the dignity and intelligence of his community in the process.
“Samy is childlike in his view of the Indian community. Yes, a lot of Malaysian Indians are in the low-income category and they lack educational opportunities. But they are not dumb. They have been around the past 50 years and they know what sort of politics is being played by BN including Najib,” Sivarasa told Malaysia Chronicle.
"If Samy wants to retain the last few shreds of credibility he has in the community, he should not sell their pride just to worm his way back into Najib's radar."
Samy trying to get back in
An unabashed Samy had on Sunday claimed the MIC was a reinvigorated party thanks to the community’s love for the Prime Minister because “Datuk Seri Najib has opened up his heart to the people, making him more popular”.
The MIC was nearly extinguished in the 2008 general election and only managed to retain two parliamentary seats. Even Samy lost his long-held Sungai Siput constituency and was dropped as Works Minister, a position he had held for decades.
To counter the loss of Indian support, Najib was forced to campaign for their attention directly. He also encouraged the establishment of Makkal Sakthi, a party led by Hindraf coordinator RS Thanenthiran, but it flopped soon after launching due to irreconcilable infighting.
Samy, under pressure to make way for new blood, has promised to step down by September 2011 but few within the community are betting bet that he will really keep his word.
On Sunday, the MIC president sounded out a warning to his political rivals, claiming that his party had now regained favor with voters. According to him, out of the 840,000 Indian voters, 500,000 were MIC members who would continue to vote BN in the next national polls.
“If Samy is right, the Indians will be supporting BN because of MIC not because of Najib. To an extent, the PM’s direct approach has won him some support but many are still suspicious that once the elections are over, the promises will be unfulfilled and the Indians will again be relegated to the last place on every list, especially the scholarships list,” Sivarasa said.
Confident Indians will stay with Pakatan in 13th GE
There are 11 million registered voters in Malaysia, which has a population of 28 million. According to the Election Commission, there are at least 4.38 million eligible voters who have not registered for the 13th General Election, which must be held by March 2013. Human Rights Party chief P Uthayakumar has estimated that of this number, at least 15 percent or 500,000 were Indians.
Malaysian Indians are about 2 million strong. They are mostly based in Selangor (19 percent), Perak (19 percent), Negri Sembilan (15 percent) Federal Territory (13 percent), Penang (10 percent), Kedah (7 percent), Johor (6 percent) and Malacca (6 percent).
“You have to view the Indian community as the people that they are and not just one voting bucket of marginalized and suppressed people. There are the professionals, the urban dwellers and those who live in the rural areas. These are the ones feel very marginalized and neglected by the BN government,” Sivarasa said.
“The catch 22 is that the poor ones are also the ones who are most susceptible to the BN election goodies and handouts, even though they know it is for the short-term. But the better educated know that this won’t work. Despite their disadvantages, they are able to appreciate that for them to really rise up, they have to abandon the BN racial approach. They were attracted to the Pakatan multiracial and equality ideal, and we are confident they will stay with us in the 13th GE.”
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