Indian Nation in Malaysia needs to get its politics and relationships right

 

If Indians in the collective vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the opposition alliance, and hypothetically Barisan Nasional (BN) still manages to form the Federal Government, the community is not likely to see any change in its fate. If anything, they are likely to continue as scapegoats and be further victimized by the powers that be and those in the corridors of power and brutalized by the racist police. If Indians being wholly with the BN from 1957 to 2008 did not prevent their decline in the country, just think what will happen when the community is on the wrong side of the political fence? 

Joe Fernandez

As the festive cheers end the year and a new one begins, the Indian Nation in Malaysia – a Nation without Territory within a Nation -- needs to think really long and hard about what the forthcoming 13th General Election means for them.

Their past has caught up with them in the present to haunt their future. The 13th GE, more than the 12th GE, will be a watershed year for them in dealing with the politics of the nation.

This is a time for Christmas wishes and making New Year Resolutions.

If there’s going to be a complete break with the past, Indians need to consider that politics for them cannot be what it means to those communities in Malaysia which have ethnic seats for the taking in Parliament and the state assemblies.

Indians are the only community in Malaysia which doesn't have even one ethnic seat in Parliament or the state assemblies despite having a million voters on the electoral rolls and forming eight per cent of the 28 million population. Their marginalisation and disenfranchisement under the Umno regime over half a century has been complete. This is a grave human rights issue.

The 8 per cent excludes at least 300,000 stateless and undocumented ethnic Indians in the country.

Mohd Khir Toyo exposed the problem of stateless, undocumented children

To his credit, it was former Selangor Menteri Besar Mohd Khir Toyo who first conceded on the Government side the fact that there were 50,000 stateless Indian children in his state alone. Khir, the son of Javanese immigrants, was sore with Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) leaders on other issues and decided to take them down a peg or two with the stateless issue.

The absence of ethnic seats for the Indians means that engaging in party politics and coalition politics will not help resolve their myriad socio-economic problems. This concept must be something to borne in mind by Indians who are now with political parties on both sides of the divide. While no one can force these members to leave their respective organisations, it would be the right thing to do if the Indian community is not to be further victimized in the aftermath of the 13th GE and other similar future outings.

If Indians in the collective vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the opposition alliance, and hypothetically Barisan Nasional (BN) still manages to form the Federal Government, the community is not likely to see any change in its fate. If anything, they are likely to continue as scapegoats and be further victimized by the powers that be and those in the corridors of power and brutalized by the racist police. If Indians being wholly with the BN from 1957 to 2008 did not prevent their decline in the country, just think what will happen when the community is on the wrong side of the political fence?

Indians caught between the known devil and the unknown angel

What can be said about BN can also be said about PR i.e. if the Indians root for BN, and PR comes in to form the Federal Government. PR, under the circumstances, will not have even moral obligations to the Indian Nation in Malaysia.

One has to only look at the fate of the minorities in the MiddleEast and West Asia in the wake of the long civil war in Lebanon, US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the eruption of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. The Christian minorities here are on the run everywhere, victimized and persecuted by a newly-united majority community for having thrown in their lot for long with the “divide-and-rule” fallen regimes rather than taking a strictly neutral or apolitical stand.

The US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe have opened their doors to them but not everyone has been able to escape the refugee camps or being reduced to the status of internally displaced persons.

It’s high time that Indians in Malaysia look at the tragic fate of the Christian minorities in MiddleEast and West Asia and decide whether this is what they want for themselves as well.

The right way forward would be for Indian voters to come out and vote in full force on a non-political, non-party basis.

Those incumbents who have been in a seat for three terms or more should be voted out.

Other incumbents who have not performed and/or otherwise done nothing for the Indian community should also be voted out.

This message needs to get out again and again until the Indian community sees the wisdom of it.

Indians should not vote for Indians to be in the legislature

Thirdly, Indian should not vote for Indians to be in the legislature. Such Indians would be unable to do anything for the community and having them merely glosses over the problem and paints the impressions that the government is being shared fairly among all Malaysians. This is the proverbial fig leaf. Such Indian legislators become convenient scapegoats i.e. to be blamed by the non-Indian legislators when the Indian community complains about anything.

However, Indians not voting for Indians is unlikely to prevent non-Indian voters rooting for Indian legislators. That’s their prerogative.

No self-respecting Indian should offer himself in the GE as that would be tantamount to further misleading the community and postponing badly-need solutions.

The Government of the Day, whether from BN or PR, should consider that it would be in their interest to appoint Indians to the Senate and in the Government sector, especially statutory bodies, government companies and GLCs.

Non-Indian legislators should take up the plight of Indian Nation in Malaysia

This would be a start for the Indian community to embark on the long and hard road towards its emergence as a force to be reckoned with in the mainstream.

Individual non-Indian legislators, fearing defeat at the hands of Indian voters, are likely to take up the community’s plight and make an attempt at resolving its myriad socio-economic problems.

The list is long.

At the macro level, the stateless and undocumented phenomenon needs to be brought to an end. At present, the Umno regime deliberately keeps the stateless and undocumented people as virtually slave labour in the twilight zone. Slavery is illegal under the Malaysian Constitution, international law and the UN Charter. The stateless don’t figure in official statistics and the phenomenon further deprives Indians of additional votes.

The Director-General of the National Registration Department (NRD) has prerogative and discretionary powers – can be determined by the Court – to resolve the stateless problem at the stroke of a pen but he refuses to do so because he’s being forced by Umno to act as if he was a hardcore card-carrying racist member of the party.

The Federal Government should appoint an apolitical ethnic Indian, a non-Muslim, as the Director-General of NRD and a non-Muslim Orang Asal – Murut, Dusun including Kadazan or urban Dusun, Dayak, and Orang Asli – as the Deputy Director-General of the NRD at least until the stateless problem in Malaysia is resolved. This is a human rights issue. Everyone has the right to an identity.

To add insult to injury, illegal immigrants and foreign labour are being allowed in to compete with Indians in jobs which they had traditionally held. The Minimum Wage Act ensures that Malaysians will be discouraged from entering the job market at the lower levels which are being kept open for illegal immigrants and foreign labour who go on to pad the electoral rolls.

Indians can’t get even cendol licences from the local authorities

Again, at the macro level, the spectrum of administrative laws – government policies in action – burdening the Indian community in particular, should be done away. These policies are unconstitutional and therefore unlawful.

An example is the fact that Indians can’t get even cendol licences from local authorities, such licences being reserved solely for members of the Malay-speaking communities -- Bugis, Javanese, Minang, Acehnese, and Indian Muslims – who are Muslim.

Another government policy which targets Indians is that which derecognizes foreign universities with a sizeable number of Malaysian Indian students. This is a policy put in place by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad whose people came from Kerala state in southwest India. The Hindu-Muslim rivalry and animosity in the Indian sub-continent has come to haunt Malaysia.

Administrative laws also facilitate the ruling elite to plunder the Public Treasury from behind the racism (feelings of inferiority in this case), prejudice (being against something for no rhyme or reason) and opportunism (sapu bersih all opportunities) of the Umno regime. Just consider the US$ 44 billion wealth allegedly amassed by Mahathir during his 22 years in the Prime Minister’s post. This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

The Syariah Court cannot be used against non-Muslims and conversions of non-Muslims should be ended. The stateless, for example, should not be forced to convert to Islam to get personal Malaysian documents.

At the micro-level, there are 1001 issues as raised by Hindraf Makkal Sakthi and other Indian NGOs. Hopefully, Hindraf will remain apolitical and not degenerate and end up as another MIC.