Kg Buah Pala's hidden lessons

One Malaysiakini reader said that because the Indians were not united,they are easily bent; that politicians kick them around like a
football.

Like the reader, I too, have no intentions of hurting the feelings of Indian Malaysians. However, the pitfalls underlying this type of reasoning, must be pointed out.

Firstly, we have been independent for 52 years. In that time, most
Indians voted for the BN, usually by supporting the MIC.

There have been many attempts to break the stranglehold of the MIC but most have failed.

That was until 2008, which owing to a swing away from the BN,
Indian Malaysian representation in state assemblies and parliament
increased way beyond expectations.

Yet, there are strong feelings on the ground that Indian Malaysians
are not being protected; that they continue to be marginalized.

That somehow, only by uniting as an "ethnic group" can they be better protected. In short, by returning to the old ways of thinking can the status quo before March 8 2008 and Hindraf be restored.

I find this very odd. Take Kg Buah Pala as an example. Some point to
it and blame Lim Guan Eng for everything.

Somehow, after being elected, he should have the mandate to turn the clock back, nullify federal court rulings and, in the words of Samy Vellu, "with the stroke of the pen" restore the villagers their "rights".

Was it not during a time when the Indians supported the BN wholeheartedly that Kg Buah Pala was sold by a BN government to an Umno-related company?

Was the developer supposed to be benevolent and stop taking advantage of the tremendous potential for profits just
because Indians in the village were united behind the BN?

The painful reality is that Indian Malaysians are a small minority. As
an ethnic group, they neither have the economic resources or the
political clout to be effective in "fighting" for "race and religion".

Furthermore, the MIC is riddled in a caste-conflict. It does not seem
to be anything beyond a Tamil and Hindu organization. It does not
appeal to the Indian Malaysian professional class.

Begging for rights

All this is not written to belittle the Indian Malaysian contribution
to Malaysia. Kg Buah Pala is one clear example of how much that
contribution is now forgotten.

But, in the zero-sum game of ethnic politics, which is also a numbers game, Indian Malaysians will continue to be further marginalized.

If there is one thing the folks from Kg Buah Pala can tell us all it is
that we cannot depend on the kindness of others!

Indian Malaysians like all other Malaysians have inalienable rights, they should not have to beg for those rights.

The same will happen to the folks in Tg Tokong if they, too, do not organize themselves and press the state government to act on their behalf.

But there is also another reality, now largely forgotten. The other
reality is that Indian Malaysians have made a great difference to the
political equation not by uniting behind a single banner but by highlighting their plight.

Emotions pent up for so long finally gave way to civil action, street protest and the vote swing we witnessed in March last year.

Political landscape transformed

The effectiveness of this is still reverberating. Street protests,
civil disobedience and non-violent demonstrations are now part of our political landscape.

But, the momentum has tapered-off as the loudest voices continue to clamour for solutions through the prism of "race and religion".

That the folks at Kg Buah Pala went from Opposition to MIC and to Umno for a solution is a clear indication that the ethnic
route does not work.

They are still being evicted and Kg Buah Pala will be history.

The only way any real lasting solution can be found is if Indian
Malaysians take the lead to force Malaysians out of our ethnic
cocoons.

Why should the civil activists fighting for Kg Buah Pala, not help raise awareness about the plight of the villagers at Tanjong Tokong and elsewhere in Malaysia?

Public scrutiny must be applied on development projects not only in Penang but throughout the whole country.

For Kg Buah Pala's problems are beyond ethnicity. Race and religion do not stand a chance when faced with "greed and profit".

Yes, perhaps in the 1980s and 1990s, the only way to build all those homes for factory workers was to let the market decide.

Now, as the economy cools and we are faced with a global climate change, a different model of real-estate development is required.

Here both the BN and Pakatan must challenge each other to find a
sustainable solution. Malaysians do not want another Kg Buah Pala.

We want the rights of all Malaysians, including developers to be
protected. But we also want the distribution of wealth to be more
equitable. Only then, can we have a more harmonious society.

So, we must continue the call for local elections. It was an Indian
Malaysian leader, one who saw himself as Malaysian first, who prepared an excellent report on why local elections are so crucial for the continued democratization of Malaysia.

The late Athi Nahappan will forever be remembered for his lucid and intelligent report.

Now, more than ever, the rights of all Malaysians are at stake giving the Athi Nahappan report new relevance.

Rather than stake all our bets on the colour of our skin or place all
our chips in the hands of politicians, we should instead press for our
constitutional rights.

In this case our rights to the third arm of government through local elections. For skin colour do not matter in Kg Buah Pala, Tanjong Tokong or in Tanjong Bungah, where protests
against hill development are continuing.

Instead, we see ourselves fighting because of systemic flaws.

For those parliamentarians who won on the back of last year's
electoral swing, it might be time to set up a special task force to
push for a review of our national policy towards real-estate
development.

We should seriously look into re-introducing capital gains tax, imposing a minimum number of years of developer liability and taking active steps towards the introducing of community-led local administration.

Only if we start acting as Malaysians can we prevent another Kg Buah Pala from happening.

Like in many other fields, Indian Malaysians are leading us all to see that the old road of "race and religion" has narrowed, with no future in sight.

NEIL KHOR has recently completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He is co-author of 'Non-Sectarian Politics in Malaysia: The Case of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia' (2008).