Indian Voters Advised Not To Give Their Votes For Free

 

Indian voters number 950,000 and they are situated in a concentrated manner in 2/3rd of all Parliamentary seats in the country. 99.9% of all Indian voters are in these constituencies and they could form as high as 10% - 45% of the total voter makeup of these constituencies.

Paraman Subramaniam 

We are all well aware that BN has victimized the Indians in this country for more than 5 decades. There is no need to waste any time to further enlighten to all their unpardonable shortcomings. PR after 5 years in coming to power in several states in Malaysia is more interested in appeasing the majority Malay voters and the economically strong Chinese voters. The total disregard of even mentioning ‘Indians’ in their manifesto is proof of how much respect they have for the Indian vote.

After concerted pressure mounted by HINDRAF, Anwar Ibrahim had to backtrack and give lip service that PR will include some ‘Indian’ issues into their manifesto. Even then it seems it may only be included as a ‘cursory’ enactment to their original manifesto that is if at all it is even included. We have been fooled many times by these dramas. Currently PR is employing the same methods used by UMNO to silence dissension among the Indian voters clamoring for their legitimate rights to be heard. UMNO used MIC, PR are now using their Indian reps and leaders to go on an attack mode against the HINDRAF blueprint.

The HINDRAF blueprint which is based on social justice as its foundation, had proposed a specific, pointed and targeted 5 year program of rehabilitation measures – quite similar to the existing FELDA settlers program – to uplift the poor and marginalized Indian community. Who stands to benefit from this blueprint? HINDRAF or the marginalized Indian poor? As such why should the Indian PR reps be against the implementation of the HINDRAF blueprint? Are they afraid that their positions will be threatened if HINDRAF gets on board PR? Is self preservation their prime motive of allowing themselves to be used by their Tuans and Towkay leaders to attack HINDRAF and belittle the HINDRAF blueprint? Were they not beneficiaries of the November 25th 2007 rally of tens of thousands of poor Indians that took to the streets in demand for permanent solutions to their critical problems?

These PR Indian leaders will attempt to belittle the significance of the Indian vote. They will try to do a spin to deflect their incompetence’s by claiming that HINDRAF has been bought over by UMNO, that the PR manifesto already encompasses the HINDRAF blueprint, that HINDRAF asking for a lot of seats, that Anwar already had said will implement the blueprint in 100 days and that PR has a lot of ‘dedicated’ Indian reps to protect Indian interests.

What they would not tell you is that today the Indian voters number 950,000 and they are situated in a concentrated manner in 2/3rd of all Parliamentary seats in the country. 99.9% of all Indian voters are in these constituencies and they could form as high as 10% - 45% of the total voter makeup of these constituencies.

Indians have recorded the highest percentage rise in new voters from 2008 to 2012 among all other races. Malacca recorded an astonishing 46% rise in new Indian voters, Selangor 22% rise and Perak and Negeri Sembilan 16% rise in new Indian voters. (See “Indian voters are King Makers once again” http://www.hindraf.org/news-statements/839-13-0105-1.html)

What PR will not tell you is that they did not have the courtesy to even engage with HINDRAF not even once on decision makings of the Indian poor since 2008. Not a single attempt was ever made by PR after coming to power! What moral grounds are they standing on today?

Why didn’t the PR Indian reps themselves come up with a blueprint to bring about permanent solutions for the Indian poor? Why were they quieter than a church mouse when PR failed to include ‘Indian’ issues into the PR manifesto but did so for all other races? Why did it take HINDRAF to do their dirty job? Why is PR dodging to prove their accountability by endorsing the HINDRAF blueprint in a binding manner?

If these PR leaders are unable to give the Indian voters crystal clear answers to these questions then the Indians should not give their votes for free to them. It is as simple as that. The Indian voters must leverage their vote to get what is best for their own self interests as what the Malays and Chinese have been doing since independence.

To understand the art of leveraging, allow me to highlight a key aspect of the space probe Voyager 2. It was launched in 1977 and was originally planned to just tour the planets Jupiter and Saturn. However soon after accomplishing, it was clear that by utilizing gravity assists successfully, they could tour beyond to the planets Uranus and Neptune while requiring a minimum amount of propellant and shorter transit duration between planets. Gravity assists or better known as gravitational slingshot is the use of the relative movement and gravity of a planet or other celestial body to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically in order to save propellant, time and expense. In layman's term this could be simply called 'LEVERAGING'. (Strategic advantage, power to act effectively, to amplify potential gains, to exert power or influence).

The Malays have been leveraging between UMNO and PAS since independence to get their needs and protect their interests. The Chinese community has been leveraging between MCA and DAP having similar interests at heart. Both the Malay politicians as well as the Chinese politicians have been taking advantage of the poor Indians being lumped together with the more affluent Chinese, under the category "Bukan Bumiputra". The Malays benefit in this as by doing so they are able to dilute the impoverished statistics of the Indians with the more affluent Chinese community statistics, so that the demands of the marginalized Indians can be kept at bay and appear shaded when compared to the Malays.

The Chinese benefit by successfully leveraging lower statistics of the 'Bukan Bumiputra' (aided by the addition of the impoverished Indians statistics that dilutes the affluent statistics of the Chinese), to lobby for support from the Government for the Chinese community's needs. DAP who traditionally consisted of Chinese and Indian supporters, after hitching on the 2007 Hindraf rally to get to power, are now leveraging their influence by ditching the Indians and trying to woo the majority Malay voters.

Indian politicians have been leveraged by the majority by using the carrot and stick approach.

How successful is the art of leveraging?

In the case of Voyager 2, it recently celebrated its 35th anniversary still cruising in space and transmitting back valuable data to Earth from the outer border of the solar system. It has traveled 24 trillion kilometers in space to date.

As such Indian voters are advised to not give your vote for free to anyone!