Discontent among Tamils puts PH seats at risk, say analysts

 

Charles Santiago and P Ramasamy were dropped as election candidates while V Sivakumar was dropped from the Cabinet.

PETALING JAYA: Distrust of Pakatan Harapan over the lack of a Tamil-speaking minister in the Cabinet may be costly for the government coalition at future elections if Indian voters abstain, says political scientist Wong Chin Huat.

Wong, of Sunway University, said “the abstention of a significant segment of voters is enough to kill PH in marginal seats”, adding that the solution was simple.

“Show empathy and build trust. The government is working very hard to win the trust of Malays. Try doing the same (for Indians). If the government can even do half of that, much of the grievances would disappear,” Wong said

Certain Indian community figures had raised their concerns about the lack of a Tamil-speaking minister in the government after human resources minister V Sivakumar was dropped in a Cabinet reshuffle two weeks ago.

The sole Indian minister now is digital minister Gobind Singh Deo, a Punjabi of the Sikh faith. However, there are three Tamils as deputy ministers, namely M Kulasegaran (law and institutional reform), R Ramanan (entrepreneur development and cooperatives), and K Saraswathy (national unity).

Wong said “the deeper issue is a deep distrust that many Tamils have of PH”, as its component DAP had dropped popular leaders such as Charles Santiago (former Klang MP) and P Ramasamy (former Perai assemblyman) from defending their seats in the polls.

Wong said some segments of Tamil-speaking voters had raised questions whether non-Tamil-speaking leaders could understand their plight.

He said if Tamil-speaking Indians wanted a Tamil-speaking minister to represent them, the government should have either retained Sivakumar or appointed junior Tamil politicians, such as Jelutong MP RSN Rayer or Klang MP V Ganabatirau.

Santiago, a three-term MP, was dropped by DAP for the 15th general election (GE15) in November last year. The party named Ganabatirau as the candidate for the Klang parliamentary seat.

Meanwhile, Ramasamy was dropped by DAP for the state elections in Penang in August, prompting him to leave the party.

Wong said all these issues raised concerns as to whether Tamil-speaking Indians were being sidelined, adding that the government should recognise the Indian community’s aspirations by structurally addressing its feeling of marginalisation.

Political analyst Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani said if PH continued to ignore the Indian community it might result in the loss of Indian support in coming elections, with some not casting their votes.

He said none of the numerous blueprints for the Indian community over the years had come to fruition or brought significant benefits. Unfortunately, without a Tamil-speaking minister, it did appear that matters impacting the community might not get priority, he said.

“If Anwar does not trust the existing Indian MPs for the task, then perhaps he should appoint someone outside the political parties as a senator to lead the charge,” Asrul said. - FMT