PETALING JAYA: A drop in Indian support for Pakatan Harapan at the recent state polls was the result of several missteps committed by politicians and a general sense of “hopelessness” felt by the community, DAP’s Charles Santiago said.
Santiago, who sits on the Selangor Indian Consultative Council (SICC), said the “blunders” included DAP’s ill-timed decision to drop P Ramasamy from its slate of candidates for the Penang polls.
He also said a slur used by PKR’s Najwan Halimi against Parti Sosialis Malaysia and its candidate for the Meru state seat, Sivaranjani Manickam, did not go down well with the Indian community.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s handling of a question by an Indian student on the quota system in education was also found to have been condescending, said Santiago.
“It triggered the Indian community. There was a lot of anger.
“We tried to cushion the damage caused through various means, including TikTok,” he told FMT, in reference to the joint efforts of SICC and various NGOs to reach out to Indian voters.
“We tried to respond, including by telling them what the federal and Selangor governments have done for education, but it was not very effective. The level of anger was so high.”
The former Klang MP was responding to questions about the low Indian voter turnout during the Aug 12 state polls, which he described as one of the “absolute worst”.
Santiago said a study by analyst Bridget Welsh, published by Malaysiakini, revealed that Indian votes had dropped by 21%, 19% and 12% for PH in Negeri Sembilan, Penang and Selangor, respectively.
On the other hand, the Indian votes for Perikatan Nasional in Penang, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor increased by 29%, 19% and 14%, respectively.
In general, there was a 15% drop in Indian votes, he said.
Santiago further emphasised that apart from PH fielding unknown candidates, there was also a lingering sense that the government was not doing enough to look into the plight of the Indian community.
“Most felt that nothing was going to change so why even bother voting? There were also some groups calling for Indians to boycott the polls because of the hopelessness felt.”
Santiago also revealed that in Selangor, the underprivileged members of the Indian community were not aware of initiatives, including cash aid and insurance policies for low income households.
“Many had given up hope that the government would help them. When we made the appeal for them to throw their support behind Pakatan Harapan, their response was, ‘Why should I help you?’”
Santiago also found it “shocking” that some in the Indian community had backed PN, saying he had expected disgruntled voters to abstain from casting their ballot.
“I cannot explain this. But I think they wanted to show how upset they were and went the extra mile to make that point,” he said.
Despite this, he believes that SICC has managed to cushion the impact stemming from indifferent and unhappy voters.
He also believes that had they reached out to Indian voters earlier, it could have made a difference, especially with more support from political parties and NGOs. - FMT
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