Will the Indians really vote for Najib in GE-13?

MIC, just like MCA, Gerakan together with UMNO may soon face the same fate as the dodo bird. Barisan Nasional (BN) will soon be left with a weak UMNO team. UMNO is keeping MCA busy with the hudud issue, Gerakan is still licking the ‘curse-word’ wounds inflicted by Perkasa and UMNO against the Chinese, while Indians are coming out with blue print after blue print. This is more than enough to see the demise of these 3 parties in the next general election (GE). Weak UMNO will soon be left puny and emaciated with only a skeletal team to face the next GE.

When UMNO becomes less popular among the Indians, crestfallen MIC will be told to come up with blueprints to help the Indians. This political exercise has been going on for the past 54 years but has seen nothing prolific taking off the ground. UMNO cannot bamboozle the Indians anymore. The 2008 general jolted UMNO when BN was mauled by the Opposition depriving them of two-thirds majority in parliament. The MIC chief of that era lost his seat even.

But the remaining MIC leaders have not learnt any lesson from that unpleasant bump. They are still being conned outright by UMNO and is on the verge of preparing another blueprint – a pure academic task – on the plights of the Indian community. As had been in the past, the blueprint will be kept in a KIV tray just to be thrown out after the following GE.

MIC members since independence were loyal supporters of BN until the year 2008 despite they being hard done-by out-and-out. Post 2008 has seen more Indians abandoning the party and the coalition after seeing the resourcefully administered states under the Opposition. Today, Indians are deserting MIC and BN in droves. The Indians in general are earnestly looking for a more effective alternative team and approach to resolve their sloppy and substandard state of livelihood. Most are gradually unsubscribing to ethnic Indian-based party for a better future. It is a trend among not only the Indians but also other races that they are now for parties that represent political ideologies rather than those that are race-based.

A ten-foot pole to touch

Many Indians feel that MIC or a race-based party is more for the elite group. MIC, UMNO, MCA or Gerakan are perceived to be parties for cronies and not for the downtrodden. Many enlightened leaders – Malays, Indian and Chinese – are now approaching the poor segment of the Indian community that MIC leaders would use a ten-foot pole to touch. This positive trend can now be seen in Penang, Selangor, Kelantan and Kedah. These states opportunely do not subscribe to racial politics. Poverty to them is colour blind and for this reason the poor Indians Chinese and Malays are given help even with their limited resources.

The uncared for Indians now have an alternative. The 2008 political tsunami has awaken them and they now see how many poor Indians are being helped in some Opposition states such as in Penang and Selangor. They see their kind in Kelantan cherishing a good life. Even in Kedah, they see some progress being made to help the Indians. There is no doubt that there are more representation of Indians in the Opposition. Thus the poor Indians cannot be easily bought over with pittance given to them. Bribing or giving a one-off RM500 a person to the poor is not going to change the perception of the Indians towards UMNO, MIC or BN. They expect more than this to uplift their living standard.

The problem of poverty among the displaced Indians seems intractable with too little help from the UMNO-led government. The New Economic Policy (NEP) did not extend its benefits to the estate workers, giving the excuse that these workers were employees of the private limited companies who owned the estates and do not fall under the span of the NEP. The aim of eradicating poverty in the plantation sector and those displaced after the plantation takeover for development did not make much progress under UMNO-led government. Indians left the estates in droves to find themselves locked up in urban squatters.

The plights of the marginalised Indians have been a perpetual state of affair. The poor Indians now feel that they have been neglected long enough. Past blue prints on the plights of these people have not been attended to. The desertion of MIC by Malaysian Indians is surely a manifestation that MIC and BN have failed itself significantly in representing the very people they serve. The Indians feel that they need a better deal in the country that their parents and grandparents had toiled night and day to build in the past. The New Economic Policy (NEP), however, was designed to give a strong push for bumiputera economic development but the minorities in the countries were neglected.

Nothing much has been done

Ethnic Indians have the lowest per capita income which is about 98 percent below the national average. Over 20 percent of Indian families are earning less than RM450 per month. The displaced Indians have limited access to housing, education and jobs. About 60 percent of Malaysian Indians work on plantations or as urban labourers, and their wages have been stagnant for the past 25 years. They account for 65 percent of those arrested under the Emergency Ordinance for violent crimes. They also constitute 60 percent of urban squatters and half the beggars in the country. Almost one in every 10 Indian children does not even attend primary school. Their dropout rate is among the highest in the country.

The dilapidated Tamil schools are churning out future labourers for the country. Leaving school without a good grasp of Bahasa Malaysia, English or Mandarin have made these Tamil school graduates jobless. University intake for Indians account for only about less than 2 percent of all intakes into government-owned higher education institutions in the country. Government-owned higher institutions have practically sidelined Indians from all the critical courses offered pushing them to go to private colleges to fulfil their ambitions. This has incurred them high costs. Loans and scholarships are hard to come by. Sixty (60 percent) of Malaysian Indians work as plantation or urban underpaid labourers and only about 3 percent in the civil service are Indians.

Lack of business and commercial licenses permits and licenses, business loans and opportunities for Malaysian Indians to run businesses have resulted in less than 1 percent Indian participation in the country’s economic wealth. Lack of proper education, poverty and the lack of job and business opportunities in life have led to high crime rates among the marginalised Indians.

Over 60 percent of the Indians are considered to be in the category of poor and hardcore poor. No serious efforts have been made by UMNO and MIC leaders to take up the Indian cause. Poor Indians do not need such class of self serving leaders and they are now obviously in quest of an alternative platform to air their grievances. A blueprint to keep MIC leaders busy is not going to be translated into progress for the marginalised Indians. Crafty and shrewd ways of politicking have been going on many times before for the last 54 years and UMNO and MIC hence have actually failed the poor Indians. MIC, though, has never learnt through its past experience or has no clout to tell UMNO point-blank what must be done to help the deprived among them.

For the past 54 years and under 6 prime ministers MIC must have come up with more than a dozen blueprints on how to improve the standard of living of the underprivileged Indians. They are forever kept busy with blueprints by UMNO and they forget the fact that nothing much has been done beyond these blueprints to uplift the living standard of the deprived Indians.

Racism, nepotism and cronyism

UMNO is known for its divide-and-rule politics and MIC is caught in this web. But UMNO needs Indian support in some crucial seats to win the next GE knowing that significant Malay and Chinese votes may not come by. They expect Indians to be the decisive force this time. The 2008 GE saw the Indians abandoning UMNO and BN. In all probability the 13th GE will face a similar scenario.

The majority poor Indians are still not happy with BN. They see racism, nepotism, cronyism favouring a single race more than the other ethnic groups. They see their neighbours being helped by virtue of they being classed as a privileged ethnic group when they are deprived of the same assistance. Being poor and grouped as an underclass community they cannot afford to own houses or land. Many live like nomads moving from one squatter area to another. Among the educated Indians they see wasteful expenditure and corruption under the present government. They feel that wasted resources could be channelled to help the poor but this is not happening.

Most Indian diasporas in many other countries have made it in life. They can afford to live a decent life even when some are not rich partly due to the right value system they adopt in their newfound countries. The case is totally different in Malaysia. A big percentage of Indians – mostly descendents of those who were brought into Malaya as indentured labour have yet to change their mindset. Their leaders are to be blamed. Indian leaders in MIC have not done much to change the mindset of these people to abandon social values that have retarded their progress.

The Indians are still trapped in a static mindset – giving to much pomp for issues such as religion, culture and traditions that can never uplift their standard of living. What most MIC leaders vouch are mainly on Tamil schools, temples and traditional celebrations. This may be part of the problems but the bigger issues such as employment, housing and education that would enable Indians to be on a par with other races are not given priority. MIC leaders have failed to change the mindset of the poor Indians and address the community’s economic needs.

Those with strong connections

BN was created to consolidate the position of elite UMNO and their racial policies. MIC actually has little space within this political framework. Only crumbs are thrown at them to masticate and they can never raise questions. MIC has been begging UMNO for 54 years to get so little done to the Indian community. Such is the pathetic state of affairs of not only MIC but also MCA and Gerakan in BN.

MIC, on its part, has failed to play its role in BN as an effective party to bring progress to the poor Indians. Politicians are more interested in scrambling for posts and glamour within the party and government and MIC is made an entity more towards enhancing their career path in politics. Their leaders squabble over the limited posts given to them within the government and consider their appointment more as a personel achievement than a responsibility towards the poor voters.

UMNO, on the other hand, is perceived as a party for cronies. The Chinese does not need MCA to succeed in this country. They can be DAP members or vote for the Opposition but successful Chinese or millionaires and billionaires among them are those who have strong connections with UMNO. The few rich Indians in the country are those with strong connections with UMNO. The poor among all races without the right connections are those who have to stay marginalised.

However, Indians should learn to abandon racial politics to survive. One of the main reasons for the debacle of the BN in 12th GE, is that Indians previously complacent openly came out in large numbers to assist the opposition candidates, be it DAP, PAS or PKR, it did not matter to them whether the candidates were Indian, Chinese or Malay. They gave their undivided support to any candidate other than BN. This was when the minorities felt that their leaders failed to represent and voice out the discontent of the people.

Show them the red card

Today there are enough Indians in parliament and the state assemblies to ensure that the welfare of the Indians are raised. This is insufficient, though. To promote economic growth of marginalised Malaysians irrespective of race or religion needs a non-race based political framework. With the advent of a two-party system in the country all races including the Indians are divided into at least two camps and this bodes well for the country. Whichever government comes to power in the next GE will have to consider the plights of all races, including the poor Indians to stay in power

The Indians now – rich and poor – are more mature whereby they will directly involve themselves with leaders of all races – Malays, Chinese, Indians. They are willing to vote for representatives irrespective of whether he is an Indian, Malay or Chinese to ensure that all their interests are taken care of. The Indians do not have to depend on MIC or for that matter an Indian representative to air their grievances. The Indians had made their voice heard in the last GE and they will once again do the same in the coming GE. Indians should stop encouraging racism and partisan politics in Malaysia. They now have a choice and should adopt political ideologies as their strategies to come up in life.

Indians may be the "forgotten” community in Malaysia under UMNO-led BN rule but they are also expecting too quick a result from leaders in the Opposition-governed states without realising that the latter have limited power and resources when Putrajaya is not under their control. Moreover, cleaning up the mess of 54 years created by UMNO-led BN cannot be done in 4 years. At least Indians in Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan are now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Since the country is now blessed with a two-party system the best coalition will be chosen to govern the country. The Indians should exercise their votes wisely as they have been marginalised and duped since independence under a regime that advocates politics of divide-and-rule. Blind loyalty to any political party is not the solution for the underclass Indians. Street demonstrations is not going to help either but awareness and the ballot box would make the difference. The Indians had already shown the yellow card to BN for their political misdemeanours and now they can perhaps show them the red card in the next GE if they wish.

The Indians on their part too need some common sense to help them succeed in life. Adopt a positive value system in life and choose leaders who have a vision to see the Indians succeed. A leader can be of any race, for that matter. Even a PAS leader can help make Indians have a decent standard of living just like what is happening in Kelantan. Indians are not neglected in the state of Kelantan despite they having no representative in the state assembly. The people see the same trend happening in Penang, Selangor and Kedah.

Malaysia Chronicle