Having suffered the worst institutional racial discrimination for the past half-century, Malaysian Indians, took it to the streets on 25 November 2007 prompting the monumental lost of two-thirds majority for the ruling coalition, UMNO/BN in 2008.
Indians who form a formidable force in almost 67 out of 222 (about 30%) parliamentary constituencies handed 5-1 states in the peninsular on a silver platter to PR.
While UMNO/BN soon recovered from living in denial and dared to face the painful truth and admit openly that it has indeed severely marginalized the Indians, PR shockingly chose to tread the path of political arrogance with their new-found victory.
Obviously the signal sent out by the minority Indians in particular which was deeply embedded in frustration over the political maladies and a yearning for a truly democratic politics defined by justice and equality has been underestimated by the ‘new kids on the block’. Hindraf’s uprisal may be new, but the cause of the uprisal is not.
It is an accumulated result of five decades of suppression, oppression, marginalization and discrimination of a minority community by the all powerful racist government. After 25 November 2007, the truth that Indians are the worst marginalized and discriminated minority group in the country has become an open secret. Thanks to Hindraf for its guts in bringing the facts to light, against all odds!
Nevertheless, while the pulse of the grass-root Indians had changed, that of the politicians had not. This is truly the case of PR politicians! Although UMNO/BN has not changed its fundamental racist politics as it can never and never will, it at least has the political intelligence to admit the truth and pretend to address the issues!
The PM’s ‘Nambikei’ pomises, Mega Ponggal festival defeating its purpose, the many cheap handouts and mainstream media manipulation have all been clearly engineered towards creating a false impression that they are trying their best (forever) to correct their past wrongs on Indians!
But what has PR been doing this five years for the Indians? While UMNO/BN’s strategy is a lot of rhetoric embedded in little action, PR’s strategy has been mere rhetoric embedded in no action! Anwar must come to his senses and understand that gone are the days when Indians can be promised the sun and the moon and given none!
His grandiloquence of ‘Anak Melayu anak saya, anak Cina anak saya, anak India anak saya’ is not going to save his political career this time around, as far as Indians are concerned! His mere rhetoric and no conviction and commitment on the Indian issues has caused Hindraf to swallow the bitter pills and reveal the truth to the public to judge it fair-and-square.
Waytha Moorthy’s 21 days of hunger strike opened many hearts and minds on the predicament suffered by Hindraf in getting justice for the Indian poor, caught between a hawk and a buzzard. The strong Indian grassroots rallying round Hindraf questioning PR’s refusal to endorse its blueprint became indispensable.
Indians who form a formidable force in almost 67 out of 222 (about 30%) parliamentary constituencies handed 5-1 states in the peninsular on a silver platter to PR.
While UMNO/BN soon recovered from living in denial and dared to face the painful truth and admit openly that it has indeed severely marginalized the Indians, PR shockingly chose to tread the path of political arrogance with their new-found victory.
Obviously the signal sent out by the minority Indians in particular which was deeply embedded in frustration over the political maladies and a yearning for a truly democratic politics defined by justice and equality has been underestimated by the ‘new kids on the block’. Hindraf’s uprisal may be new, but the cause of the uprisal is not.
It is an accumulated result of five decades of suppression, oppression, marginalization and discrimination of a minority community by the all powerful racist government. After 25 November 2007, the truth that Indians are the worst marginalized and discriminated minority group in the country has become an open secret. Thanks to Hindraf for its guts in bringing the facts to light, against all odds!
Nevertheless, while the pulse of the grass-root Indians had changed, that of the politicians had not. This is truly the case of PR politicians! Although UMNO/BN has not changed its fundamental racist politics as it can never and never will, it at least has the political intelligence to admit the truth and pretend to address the issues!
The PM’s ‘Nambikei’ pomises, Mega Ponggal festival defeating its purpose, the many cheap handouts and mainstream media manipulation have all been clearly engineered towards creating a false impression that they are trying their best (forever) to correct their past wrongs on Indians!
But what has PR been doing this five years for the Indians? While UMNO/BN’s strategy is a lot of rhetoric embedded in little action, PR’s strategy has been mere rhetoric embedded in no action! Anwar must come to his senses and understand that gone are the days when Indians can be promised the sun and the moon and given none!
His grandiloquence of ‘Anak Melayu anak saya, anak Cina anak saya, anak India anak saya’ is not going to save his political career this time around, as far as Indians are concerned! His mere rhetoric and no conviction and commitment on the Indian issues has caused Hindraf to swallow the bitter pills and reveal the truth to the public to judge it fair-and-square.
Waytha Moorthy’s 21 days of hunger strike opened many hearts and minds on the predicament suffered by Hindraf in getting justice for the Indian poor, caught between a hawk and a buzzard. The strong Indian grassroots rallying round Hindraf questioning PR’s refusal to endorse its blueprint became indispensable.
Hence, having been corned after five years of pretending to be multiracial and no commitment to help the Indian poor, quite philanthropically, transcending their so called ‘multiracial’ ideology which the marriage of convenience is fundamentally lacking, DAP showcased its breathtaking passion and compassion in uplifting the Indian poor. How noble indeed, albeit too close to the election!
From Kampung Buah Pala to the recent so called ‘Gelang Patah Declaration’ it has been nothing more than mere rhetoric on the part of PR. 110,000 land titles in 349 Rancangan Kampung Tersusun for Malay Muslims, 102,000 land titles in 134 Chinese New Villages, 10 acres of land to each and every Orang Asli in Perak, 1,000 acres of land and RM100 million for pig farming in Sepang Selangor and more than 607 (Chinese) New Villages nationwide with 1.2 million villagers... and many more!
Tamil schools are running in cabins and cowshed like buildings from colonial era, but, alas! The other communities need help first! Hundreds of Indian students with clean sweep of 10As are not offered places at the universities every year, but, alas! PR can only do a toothless round table talk at the parliament lobby as a debate in parliament on the Indian students’ educational plight is racism and not multiracial!
For the minority Indian votes, it is sufficient to make some noise here and there, give out some cheap hampers to a few, pose in the media with mock cheques every now and then … That is enough to scrape through the five years without any true political conviction and commitment to address their plights!
Endless meetings after meetings with Hindraf just to drag their feet, meaningless press statements after statements, countless attacks on Hindraf and the Indian poor calling them heinous names, undue demands for Indian votes as their God given right, appalling media manipulation of Hindraf as a racist organization (very cleverly concealing their own dirty racist politics) and the list goes on….. this is what PR has been doing the past five years!
While UMNO/BN can be congratulated for their skills in shedding crocodile tears for the Indian community, what to say about PR of their total omission of Indian issues this last five years? That they’ve been truly multiracial and non-racist towards Indians?
Mere rhetoric, rhetoric, rhetoric and more rhetoric! Enough is enough, the Indians are fed-up! The Indian poor need amicable solutions and not mere rhetoric from PR!
