GE13: Are Indians rooting for BN?

Indians till to-date have failed to read that BN is cunning in practising gimmicks in order to obtain votes.

COMMENT

A very recent survey conducted by Pakatan Rakyat grassroots workers has revealed that Indian support for Pakatan has dipped below 50%.

Going by logical indications that the 13th general election is surely going to be held in March, this leaves Pakatan with only one month to work out a plan to regain Indian support.

What made the Indians swing back to Barisan Nasional was the hampers given by BN on a quite frequent basis lately. Most of the Indians who were surveyed commented that they were very grateful to BN for the hampers, especially during the festive occasions.

In fact, this “Hamper Culture” is an insult to the recipients and goes against morality and noble ethics as it is done only for the reaping of temporary gain by the giver. Perhaps the giver has not heard of the proverb: “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for the rest of his life.”

It will be to the great loss of the ordinary citizens (the Indians themselves included) if they were to opt out of the movement for change thereby causing the nation to regress and the citizens who are poor to suffer with the implementation of the GST (goods and services tax).

For the GST will surely be implemented after the general election if BN wins and this will cause the prices of everything and the cost of living to rise rapidly.

Indians till to-date have failed to read that BN is cunning in practising gimmicks in order to obtain votes.

Therefore those Indians who think that BN will always help out with hampers had better think again as this type of assistance is extremely short-term.

Indians must start to think in a progressive and forward-looking manner. The recent incident in Selangor last month when Indians were seen crowding round the BN lorry waiting to receive bags of rice truly resembles a scene from a Third World nation.

It is the ultimate insult and Indians must therefore reject BN in order to salvage any pride.

Better future under Pakatan

Under Pakatan Rakyat, Indians will have lots more to gain. Many Indians in Selangor have been given property titles by the Selangor Pakatan state government whereas during BN’s tenure, all that the Indians have got from BN was merely the Temporary Occupation Licence (TOL).

Indians, too, have obtained small business loans from the Pakatan state government’s micro-credit business loan scheme and even BN has followed this model.

Certainly Indians have much more to look forward to under Pakatan. As of now, Pakatan has only administered Selangor for only five years this coming March. What is five years compared to BN’s 55 years?

Will Indians stop to think how much they will forego if they were to support BN just because of some meagre temporary gain?

Have they stopped to think carefully how their vote will affect their children’s and grandchildren’s future in the long term?

Shortsightedness will definitely do in the Indians in the near future after BN wins the 13th general election. Another reason for the Indian change of heart in going back to supporting BN is due to the water crisis in certain areas of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

The Indians should realise that the water crisis is a BN strategy to obtain their vote and therefore should not succumb to this unethical tactic.

Indians must hold firm and go for change for a better government instead of regressing to the old unworkable methods and in the long run getting stuck in a rut.

This is because it is Pakatan which has ideas for betterment, not BN. Even the reduction in road tolls and the “Jom Shopping” projects are Pakatan’s ideas which have been adopted by BN.

Why must Indians vote for someone who uses another person’s ideas? Why not vote for the person from whom the ideas originate? Isn’t that a better and smarter move?

Make a change

It is time the Indians understood that the problems of their community will take a long time to solve.

The urban Sabahans and Sarawakians, the Chinese and about 50% of the Malays have made up their minds to vote for Pakatan.

It is still not enough for Pakatan because the phantom/dubious voters need to be factored in.

Therefore it is now up to the Indians. Those who want to vote for change are depending on the Indian votes.

The choice is in the hands of the Indians and now is the time to take stock of the future and which path to take.

Will the Indians vote to continue BN’s tenure so that they can continue to get small, short-term gifts or will they vote for Pakatan in order to be empowered so that they can improve their own situation once and for all?

DAP’s Teluk Intan MP, M Manogaran, commented that Indians should look into achieving permanent and long-term progress for themselves and their future generations.

“For 55 years, this has not been achieved under BN and therefore now it is time to make a change for the better,” said Manogaran.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.