CRISIS-HIT MIC BEING BULLIED BY UMNO: How long will Palanivel's defiance last?

In a glaring example of the bullying of minority groups in this country, an UMNO proposal that a BN secretariat administer the crisis-hit party has rightly met with a flat refusal by Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) president G. Palanivel.

BN secretary-general, Adnan Mansor, who is also the Federal Territories minister, will do well to look into the appalling conditions of his own ministry and look into the deteriorating conditions within Kuala Lumpur before butting his head into the affairs of others.

MIC is a party for Indians, and although within the ambit of BN, they need to be accorded their sovereign status and does not need an ultra-chauvinistic Malay party like UMNO to tell them how to manage the business of the party.

If at all, the present crisis within MIC is a reflection of the apathy and indifference of UMNO towards the minority races in this country. While past and present leaders of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) were busy ushering in Chinese New Year the mood was somber within MIC.

But by the present goingon’s within MIC, the MCA leadership is also aware that the horse is bolting out of the stable and the battering ram or the Year of the Goat is entering and they are mightily aware of UMNO’s dark hand in the MIC crisis.

MIC’s predicament

MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel (right) has filed a suit to SUE the Registrar of Societies in a rare display of defiance

Related Story: GOOD FOR YOU PALANIVEL! MIC sues RoS

It is easily evident that the present crisis within MIC can be traced to the raw deal Indians in this country have been accorded by BN though the community has provided strong support to BN. But UMNO has no real gratitude for this as can be witnessed.

Not only the Indians, but the Chinese community as well, has been alongside UMNO in the fight for Independence or “Merdeka” and part of the founding of this country in 1957. While all was well in the beginning, it is a sad and different story now.

With the ouster of Tunku Abdul Rahman as the founding prime minister of this country after the May 13, 1969 race riots, the Indians and Chinese quickly fell into a predicament with the implementation of the ill-conceived New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1970.

While the hastily-conceived NEP was a laudable affirmative action program to assist the Malays and other bumiputeras, it fell short of addressing the problems of the Indian and Chinese communities over three decades of the NEP’s tenure.

If it was felt the end of the NEP will bring relief to the Indian and Chinese communities, it was not to be so as they continued to be victims of the subsequent New Economic Model and the present Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Council.

While the Chinese community was more stoic and realistic in the face of this UMNO-created persecution, the Indian community, being a smaller group and less endowed economically, continued to lag behind.

Indians in a limbo

While the better educated and well-off Indians in Malaysia either migrated or continued to prosper, the bulk of the Indian community stayed in limbo. This is especially true of the Tamil community who form the majority of MIC members.

The Indian population of about 7 per cent in this country of 30-million strong is made up 85 per cent of Tamils and they also form the heaviest content of the MIC membership. The remaining 15 per cent of Indians are made up of Punjabis, Malayalee, Bengalis, Gujarati and other Indians.

What this translates into is that while the other Indians, though smaller in proportion, concentrated and focused on business and educational opportunities, the Tamils have been languishing in the plantation sector ever since they arrived from India as indentured laborers.

Their plight is tragic as most of them are in grinding poverty and have been neglected and left to fend on their own though they have displayed a strong and unwavering support for BN. BN seems to lack little understanding or interest in the plight of Indians in this country.

Undoing the damage

Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam

It is therefore essentially the Tamil community, among Indians, that continue to be left behind. The community is guilty of witnessing a large number of gangsters and their kith and kin in prisons for a range of crimes.

It is also a crying shame to see that most the Tamil community members are not interested in taking up whatever educational and employment and business opportunities open up to them. Attitudes within the Tamil community have not changed.

The fear is that although they consist of a small number of the population the community is riddled with problems and there is concern that they can turn into a restive group giving problems to everyone else in this country.

The writing is clearly on the wall. Read the Indian graffiti and BN should know that they need to get to address the root of the community’s problems or find that they are saddled with Indians as a thorn in the flesh to them. - MAILBAG