“It felt less like a discussion and more like stepping into an inferno.”
- former DAP MP Charles Santiago
When ex-MP Charles Santiago described his meeting with Indian community leaders in Johor as walking into an inferno, I knew what he meant.
I would also say it is not confined to Johor alone. Anecdotally speaking, community leaders and organisers I have been in contact with are exhibiting the same kind of anger towards Madani, which includes DAP.
Much has been made about the failed strategy of using the possible release of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak as a vote-getter in Johor.
The fact is that the working-class Indians and activists I speak to inform me that this has zero impact.
There is a significant percentage of working-class Indians who do not have animus towards the convicted felon as the political narratives of DAP would have you believe.
Urimai’s P Ramasamy said it best. From reportage - “Commenting on a survey which found that a majority of Indians backed Najib’s bid for a royal pardon, Ramasamy said the community continues to differentiate between his personal misdeeds - especially in the 1MDB scandal - and his outreach to the Indian community.”
Now, of course, in the social media spaces of non-Malays, a statement like this would be mocked. But when it comes to reality, the kitchen table reality, this means that votes are getting lost because nobody is really interested in studying the terrain.
Around election time, the “Indian vote” comes into play. Politicians from both sides of the divide make the necessary noises of “inclusion” to cater to the demographic.
The comment sections of such news stories are sprinkled with the usual racist diatribes against the community.
Besides the urban English-educated voter, the people who actually vote in districts which could actually mean something do not read the “English” news stories that come out in the alternative media or the mainstream (English) media, for that matter.
Charles said: “The irony is striking. The Indian middle class appears ready to cast a protest vote with Bersama, while many in the working class are drifting back to BN - the very coalition they once helped vote out.”
As someone who has spilt much ink about his disdain for MIC, this has been something which has not been easy for me to assimilate.
PSM’s plight
This is an important point and points towards the class conflict within the Indian community, which is probably why a party like PSM is savaged and which the Indian working class runs to whenever they need real help, but which they abandon when it comes to elections.
For example, PSM settled the housing issue of 393 families from four estates in Dengkil.
“The houses are expected to be completed in October. BN and Pakatan Harapan had a hand in the project, but it was PSM and its movement that helped bring the matter to their attention and demand action,” PSM deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan said in 2023.
This is just one example of the sometimes decades-long struggles that PSM has been involved with, but as Arutchelvan said: “We nominated a candidate in Dengkil, and they are surprised to know that we are a political party.”
Furthermore, there is a growing realisation among working-class Indians that when it comes to political parties, it really doesn’t matter who is voted in because all these political parties work with each other when it is convenient.
An Indian voter in Johor reminded me that DAP thanked the MIC and Umno in Kuala Kubu Bharu, so why can’t he and his family vote for MIC now?
From reportage – “The Jelutong MP, who thanked Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and MIC president SA Vigneswaran for supporting the coalition candidate, said he is not surprised by the former Penang deputy chief minister’s actions.”
Anwar errs, MIC gains
It is strange, though. For decades, Anwar Ibrahim, for a myriad of reasons, enjoyed extremely healthy support from the Indian community.
But these days, as prime minister, Harapan and he are slowly but surely losing support from the community.
These days, Anwar seems more interested in bullying a young student who asks him genuine questions about educational opportunities in Malaysia or presiding over a conversion ceremony of a young Indian convert.
I was talking to a MIC operative; he was heartened by the participation of youths in their programmes and took it as a positive sign that young Indians were returning to MIC.
Meanwhile, when I talked to government-aligned youth activists, they claimed that their only interest was to help the community and would take assistance from any place they could get.
There has been much talk as to why Indians are raging at Madani, but the most common flashpoint, anecdotally, I come across is when the prime minister officiated the conversion of a Hindu youth.
What does it say to the Hindu community - or even the Indian community - when the prime minister of this country presides over the conversion of a Hindu youth, while mothers are battling in the courts to get their children back, are suing the state security apparatus to do their jobs, and dealing with the religious bureaucracy who are hampering their efforts to reconcile with their children?
I would say that this event was as totemic as the cow head protest when it comes to the Indian votes, especially the working class abandoning the federal government.
Negeri Sembilan polls
Now, of course, this does not mean that Harapan is in trouble in Negeri Sembilan. But who knows.
The reality is that the Indian vote is now in play, and Charles is correct when he says the winners for the Indian vote are those - “…who attracts the deepest disappointment.”
Indians, especially disenfranchised ones, neither have the luxury of engaging in partisanship nor can they indulge in the numerous political outfits that claim to champion their cause.
There is no true course for the Indian community.
Our fate shall be the same as that of all the non-Malays, but it is just that we will get there sooner. - Mkini
S THAYAPARAN is commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT
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