MIC is dead, Umno dying: Malaysian Indians won't fall for Najib's EMPTY PROMISES

Prime Minster Najib Razak is now at the end of his tether and desperately trying to gain Indian votes after the UMNO-led government had neglected this ‘relegated’ ethnic group for the past 55 years. He wants the Indians to give him a strong mandate in the 13^th general elections but alas, this is not going to happen.

Najib is aware that Indian voters can help Barisan Nasional (BN) win in many constituencies in the country. But the Indians cannot be easily swayed this time around.

BN is a coalition where UMNO has more say than all the other component parties. This does not bode well for the coalition and the poor minority groups in the country. Today, however, UMNO has been reduced to almost half of its previous political strength and other component parties in the coalition have been rated as ‘totally irrelevant’ in the country’s political landscape.

Indians are a forgotten community

UMNO and BN have already lost hope in Malay and Chinese votes and they are now pursuing hard to ‘catch’ Indian votes. But then Indians too have lost faith in UMNO and BN. Thanks to the two-party system the country now has.

If truth be told, UMNO and BN today have lost their way with the resurgence of an alternative coalition in the country – Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

For the past 55 years UMNO leaders have kept promising the displaced Indians the moon, but the party has not lived up to their promises. Indians have now realised that UMNO’s promises are like piecrust, made to be broken.

The country has gone through 12 general elections and each time an election comes UMNO-MIC leaders will beg for Indian support. In actuality, Indians are a ‘forgotten community in Malaysia’ under 55 years of BN rule. They will only be remembered just before the elections.

Indians have long been neglected by UMNO in education, public service development programmes, economy and social programmes. Indians have become the new ‘under-class’ in the country under the race-based policies of UMNO-led government.

Despite all the sugary promises given to the pitiable Indians by UMNO- MIC leaders UMNO’s old and present policies of race and religion have not helped these marginalised Indians in anyway. MIC and other Indian leaders in BN are more interested in scrambling for posts, position, honorific titles and business opportunities.

Indian leaders in BN are there only to warm the seats as they cannot do much to push ‘Big Brother’ UMNO to look into the plights of the unheeded Indians.

With crumbs and pittance

The Indian poor today fittingly represent the ‘underside’ of Malaysia's economy.  Despite the country's outer appearance of ‘racial harmony and opportunity for all’, many in the Indian community have limited access to housing, education and jobs.  About 70 percent of Malaysian Indians work as rural and urban labourers, and they constitute among the poorest ethnic groups in the country.

After 55 years of UMNO-led government, Indians are still lagging behind other ethnic groups in almost all the economic sectors. Another five-year mandate for BN will further diminish the hopes of the poor Indians. Bribing the poor Indians to vote for BN with crumbs and pittance is not the solution to the problems faced by this ethnic group.

Votes given to UMNO and BN will only help secure UMNO’s position in a race-centric polity.  The poor Indians cannot anymore depend on UMNO-MIC to change their fate.

Though Indians form just 8 percent of the total population, they account for almost 60 percent of those who live in poverty. Indians rank lowest in national elementary-school examinations and about two in every 10 Indian children do not even attend primary school. The drop-out rates among Indian children is only second to the Orang Asal.

And 60 percent of Indian children in school are handicapped when it comes to the command of the National language and English.

Indian minorities are neglected

Poor Indians have been living in urban and rural squatters after they were displaced from estates and chased out with some meagre compensation.

The New Economic Policy (NEP) was a national affirmative-action program designed to give an economic head start to Malays and the indigenous Bumiputeras. And with the strong push for Bumiputera economic development for the past 40 years, the poor Indian minorities are further neglected.

Unlike the Chinese, Indians do not have the economic prowess to thwart the NEP's effects. Indian politicians in BN have little clout to wield much political influence to help the downtrodden Indians.

There is no affirmative-action program based on need that can help the marginalised Indians under BN government. Indian leaders in BN are silent on this and dare not push through the issue for fear that they will lose their posh positions in the government.

Do not trust UMNO-MIC anymore

Today there are more than enough Indians out there who actually do not trust UMNO-MIC anymore after they have being totally ignored by them all these years.

Since the 2008 general elections the Indian community’s support for the BN has wilted. There are three factors attributing to this phenomenon. Firstly, majority Indians feel hard done-by when UMNO leaders have broken their promises for the last five decades.  UMNO will only beg for their votes to win elections with empty promises.

Secondly, majority Indians are aware of the presence of a two-party system in the country. What has blessed the nation is that this ethnic group could see the benefits of a two-party system now. States like Penang and Selangor have done a lot to help the marginalised Indians since the 2008 general elections.

They now have more Indian representatives in the State and Federal Opposition to air their grievances.  The educated Indians are now well-read and better informed over the initiatives and the PR government’s sincerity in helping the community even though news on their noble initiatives has been blocked by the mainstream media.

The community apparently continues to receive tremendous support and benefits from the state governments under PR, much to the envy of BN.

Thirdly, there are many educated Indians in the Opposition who are playing a positive role in bringing up issues of the poor Indians and this is panicking UMNO-MIC. The community now feels that only with a two-party system would it be capable of shaping the future of the marginalised Indians.

Betting on UMNO’s and MIC’s rhetoric

The Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat (HKR) rally on Saturday 12, 2013 in Kuala Lumpur drew not less than 25, 000 Indian supporters together with thousands from among the other races to express their discontent and anger towards the present UMNO-led government. They were not given any money or goodies to attend.

They were not bribed but presented themselves voluntarily at the rally. They were aware that despite all the protests and dissents by their ethnic group in the past nothing tangible had been done by UMNO-led government to protect their welfare.

For 55 years UMNO and MIC had all the opportunity to help the 500, 000 marginalised and poor Indians in the country but they did not. They had all the chance – a dozen times when Indians gave their support to the former Alliance Party and the present BN.

Throughout these years, the down trodden Indians were left in stagnations, deprived of everything from basic shelter to jobs.

UMNO and MIC have been making promises, pledges and asking for a new mandate. But the Indians will this time choose the best between the two – PR and BN. Indians feel that they need better representatives in the government not ‘yes-men’ who would further help entrench UMNO’s race-based policies.

Indians this time will not fall into this UMNO-MIC wiles that have been thrown at them come every election time. Only the Indians can help decide their future by stop wagering on UMNO’s and MIC’s rhetoric that has turned up empty every time.

UMNO-MIC empty rhetoric

‘Give us more time to help you’, this is how UMNO pleads to the poor innocent Indians. It has become a cliché of sort and repeated so often only before every election.  Beleaguered and snowed under Najib is hoping for Indians to vote him in again despite the fact t that Indians are facing so much hardship and having so little to fall back on.

Poor Malaysian Indians are not given the same privilege as the poor Malays.  They are deprived of places in public universities to do some critical courses, deprived of scholarships, there is no special institution built for them to enhance their skills and knowledge like what they provide for the poor Malays.

Education is the key for elevating people from poverty, but marginalised Indians have been ‘discriminated’ against in all sectors of the economy. Wealth-wise, Indians in total own less that 2 percent of the national economic equity. They only form less than 3 percent of the workforce in the public sector and consist of the biggest ethnic group who owns no house or land.

There are still Malaysian Indians without proper nationality documents and many holding red ICs compared to the many foreign national who have been conferred Malaysian citizenship.

Indians have abandoned BN

Najib’s popularity is plummeting together with UMNO and BN. They have lost Malay and Chinese support. They now believe that by clinging to the Indians could regain their sagging popularity. But even this is a flawed equation. Indians too have abandoned them.

Najib is desperate for Indian votes now and will promise anything under the sky but after the election, he will just expediently forget about it and life moves on as usual for the marginalised Indians.

Seemingly, Indians are generally happy with the state governments under PR. It looks like PR pact is more capable in helping the Indians than UMNO-led BN.  This is the blessings in having a two-party system in the country.

Najib is now pleading to Indians to give BN a new mandate and ‘more time’ to resolve the many problems faced by the community – a key swing vote bank in the general elections. But isn’t 55 years given to them not long enough?

He pleads that  ‘his government’s efforts for the community as a work in progress’  at an event organised by the Indian Progressive Front (IPF) in Semenyih, Selangor.   ‘Just like when we build a house it will take time but we have seen its frames’.

This sounds so pathetic, though. Unfortunately, the ‘house’ has been left with frames for the past 55 years all because of UMNO’s past broken promises and its race-centric politic s.

The end of ‘Indian future’

His government’s national transformation agenda to achieving whatever he wants to achieve has given little hopes for the underprivileged Indians.  In fact, UMNO has failed to recognise the contribution of Indians in the development of the country right from the Colonial days to the post-Independence era.

UMNO-led BN has not improved the community’s social and economic status.  A stronger and huge mandate for BN will further marginalise the deprived Indians in the country.

The Indians have trusted BN for 55 years and yet they have been hard done-by all through. A new mandate for UMNO and BN will only spell the end of ‘Indian future’ in the country for certain.

Malaysia Chronicle