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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Should Indian-based parties even exist?

It makes sense for the community to steer clear of ethnic-based parties.
COMMENT
MIC hindraf2The ongoing tussle over disputed election results in MIC has seen little reaction from the Indian community. That should tell these so-called heroes of the community something if they can only see beyond their thick hides.
Umno’s predictable reaction on the predicament of its lapdog has been to urge Indian-based political parties to unite under the ruling Barisan Nasional umbrella. However, its rules stand in the way, since admission is by consensus.
The MIC wants to be the sole political party on the government side to “represent” the community.
However, the fact is that there is not even one Indian-majority seat in the country although Malaysian Indians form some 2,105,134 million or 6.7% of the estimated (July 2014) 30,073,353 population.
All Indian legislators in the country, on both sides of the political divide, are elected by non-Indian voters, namely Malay on the government side and Chinese on the opposition side.
The statistics tell the story: Malay 50.1%, Chinese 22.6%, indigenous 11.8%, Indian 6.7%, others 0.7%, non-citizens 8.2% (2010 est.)
In short, it does not make sense for Indian-based political parties to exist. If at all they exist, it’s because their leaders want to outbid each other in delivering the votes of the community to either side in return for some crumbs for themselves after others had more than their fair share of the fill and spoils of office.
Even then, the myth persists.
Which party can best look after Indians? That’s rich coming from those who are not elected by Indian voters. The primary objective of a legislature is to look after all voters, not just Indians, who would certainly be a minority in any constituency.
The Indian plight in Malaysia is the story of the estimated 850,000 displaced estate workers and some 350,000 stateless persons.
Political tsunami
This is the constituency represented by Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, which ignited a People’s Uprising in the streets of Kuala Lumpur on November 25, 2007. The result was a political tsunami on March 8, 2008, which brought the opposition for the first time to power in five states and the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur. It was estimated that 85% of the Indian votes cast went to the opposition.
In the last outing, in 2013, some 55% still voted opposition.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, noting the lower Indian vote count for the opposition, quickly brought Hindraf into his government and made its leader, P Waythamoorthy, a senator and deputy minister. He quit in frustration after eight months when Najib appeared to be too concerned with what MIC would think and never delivered on a promised RM4.5 billion budget for the Indian underclass. Najib appeared not to differentiate between the Indian underclass, represented by Hindraf, and the elite- dominated MIC.
Outside the Hindraf constituency, one research paper on Indians – notable for its class stratification, with large elite and lower income groups – gives a different picture and one which doesn’t need the MIC or similar parties.
The Indians also make up a disproportionately large percentage of the Malaysian professional workforce per capita i.e. 15.5% of Malaysian professionals. This includes doctors (28.4%), lawyers (26.8%), dentists (21%), veterinary surgeons (28.5%), engineers (6.4%), accountants (5.8%), surveyors (3.0%) and architects (1.5%). Furthermore, Malaysian Indians make up 38% of the Malaysian medical workforce.
Given this wide gulf between the haves and have-nots, it’s likely that the urbanites would continue to vote against the ruling party, whether at the federal or state level, while the have-nots would continue to be misled by the so-called Indian-based political parties.
It makes sense for Indians to steer clear of ethnic-based political parties and throw their lot with other political parties.
That would in some way help to break the ethnic mould, which perpetuates the divide-and-rule formula introduced during British colonialism. Indians coming out of the ethnic mould in the peninsula, along with the people in Borneo continuing to reject polarization, would help steer the country towards issue-based politics.
The key to this is Indians rejecting Indian-based political parties claiming to represent them.

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