MIC offers Indians nothing new under Palanivel ( just empty promises)

By Joe Fernandez

COMMENT MIC president G Palanivel is exuding confidence despite suggestions that the party’s days of monopolising the community votes are over. He’s banking on the organisation and structure of the party which, according to him, is well-established compared with its rivals for Indian votes.

He forgets the dangers posed by a one-to-one pact among the opposition alliance to take on the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), the synergies between DAP and PAS, and the sudden eruption of mood-creating elements like Hindraf’s Makkal Sakthi – people power – wave in 2008. Indians are in no mood for the MIC even if they return to the BN. The Malays blame MIC for the emergence of Hindraf Makkal Sakthi in late 2007.

Palanivel nevertheless thinks that other Indian-based political parties in the country like the Human Rights Party (HRP), the political wing of Hindraf, would not be able to match the MIC in monopolising the Indian vote bank. HRP is not the only party challenging the MIC for Indian votes. There are others like the Umno-sponsored Malaysia Makkal Sakthi Party (MMSP) which, riding on Hindraf’s Makkal Sakthi war cry, claim to be friends of BN.

Palanivel, however, doesn’t explain why the Indian community in Malaysia must continue to swear by a political party that has squatted on them for more than half a century. The MIC, like the leopard, cannot change its spots.

The MIC’s shameful history is against it. How will Palanivel account for it as he tries to woo the community anew? Is there anything new from the party for the community except continued marginalisation under Umno amidst stepped-up police brutality against the youths and NGOs?

The MIC, named after the Indian Congress Party (ICP), initially began as a political party fighting for the independence of the Indian sub-continent and not Malaya as it’s widely believed. This was true not only of the MIC but all the other ICP clones in Fiji, South Africa and elsewhere in the Indian diaspora.

Malaya and later Malaysia was an afterthought for the MIC. This was evident in the party, along with the MCA, blindly subscribing to the unwritten social contract forged by first Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, that is, since the Chinese monopolised the local economy – 29% of the overall economy in 1969 – the Malays, holding about one per cent of the economy, would lead the politics. The threat to the political status quo resulted in the searing Sino-Malay race riots of May 13, 1969.

Like the British colonials, the MIC along with MCA was more concerned with protecting the ruling Malay elite from their own incompetence, mindful of their vested interests, and less with the concerns of their respective communities. The WikiLeaks take from Singapore recently on the incompetence of politicians in Malaysia is nothing less than the Gospel truth.

Benign neglect

Since independence, it was business as usual for the Ali-Baba style MCA – the Malay Ali selling government contracts to the Chinese Baba for a commission – while MIC leaders concerned themselves with delivering the Indian votes en bloc to Umno in return for some crumbs for themselves as part of the spoils of office, if not a share of the loot. It cannot be said that MIC leaders like former president S Samy Vellu, once an office boy with the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Council, did not grow more than filthy rich by peddling Indian votes to Umno.

The MIC’s benign neglect of the Indian community continued through the New Economic Policy (1970-1990) years. Little did the party think of querying why the NEP’s poverty eradication schemes excluded the Indian community. The NEP had pledged eradication of poverty irrespective of race, colour and creed. The NEP also pledged that it would eliminate the identification of race with economic function and place of residence. Again, the Indian community was overlooked.

The NEP further pledged that the Bumiputera community would own, control and manage 30% of the corporate economy – that is, listed on the stock market – within 20 years, that is by 1990.

Instead, the NEP was unilaterally extended to every facet of the economy in Malaysia and the MIC, along with the MCA, played the deaf, dumb and blind role of the proverbial three monkeys... hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil. The main pre-occupation of the leaders of the two parties was to feather their own nests while, again, protecting the ruling Malay elites from their own incompetence to minimise the damage to their own interests. Their people were left to fend for themselves as best as they could.

Both the MCA and MIC elites, fattened by Umno at their people’s expense, also looked the other way when Umno usurped the power of the King over Article 153 of the Federal Constitution and unilaterally extended it beyond the four areas provided by law for the special position of the Malays and natives for 15 years from 1957... a reasonable proportion of the intake into the civil service; into institutions of higher learning owned by the government and training privileges; scholarships; and opportunities from the government to do business.

Both MCA and MIC allowed Umno to use Article 153 as a “sapu “bersih (clean sweep) policy and programme to the detriment of their people. Article 153 continues despite its shelf life having long since expired.

The MIC has been unable to protect Indian participation in Malaysia. From a high of about 60% of the high-ranking government servants and police officers, the Indian community’s participation is today down to less than one per cent. In fact, the combined non-Malay stake in the federal civil service is less than 10% despite them forming 40% of the population.

Hare-brained scheme

Samy Vellu, seizing the initiative, embarked on his hare-brained scheme of constructing a parallel government to exploit the Indian community through various schemes. Most of these undertakings lacked transparency and public accountability and were run by nincompoops related to Samy Velu one way or other. The result was an empire in ruins by the time Samy Vellu quit as the party president recently.

However, he still hangs around... supervising the empire in ruins. Palanivel is hardly in a position to tell his old boss to “get lost and stay lost”. He knows why he was groomed to take over from Samy Vellu and that is to protect the latter at all costs from the possibility of counting the bars.

So, before Palanivel dismisses the presence of other Indian-based parties in the political landscape, he should explain what is being done to set the record straight at MIC. What can the community expect from the party at the next general election and beyond? Is the MIC still all about the leaders serving themselves at the expense of the community or has it at last begun serving the community? Is it still pre-occupied, along with the MCA, with protecting the ruling Malay elite from their incompetence?

If we begin with Palanivel himself, it can be said that he’s a man of modest means and therefore vulnerable to the temptations of office that come his way. How such a weak leader can serve the community defies all comprehension. He will probably be led by the nose by the monied Samy Vellu from behind the scenes.

Palanivel only holds a federal deputy minister’s post while his deputy in the party is a full federal minister. That he can swallow such an insult from Umno and keep up pretences must surely tell us all something about the man. By right, he should demand a full federal minister’s post or stay out from the Cabinet. MIC had two full ministers during the time of VT Sambanthan as president. Samy Vellu did away with this practice because he did not want any other Indian watching his performance during Cabinet meetings.