I note that the poor president of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) has come under fire because of the recent mud and landslides in his constituency and further has been the first chief of the Indian ally of Umno to get a royal reprimand from the sultan of the state where his constituency is located.

Nobody seems to have seen it from the other angle, most take it that this would be the right issue to forcefully make this president step down since there is an entire new ‘battalion of warriors’ waiting to take over.

What will poor G Palanivel be able to do if there are landslides in his mountainous constituency? Shall he invoke the powers of Lord Muruga since his name is that of the Lord as well and use the powerful ‘vel’ and stop the water, mud and silt from washing down his mountainous ward?

It clearly smacks of decades of neglect by the state and district administration. Can an MP stop the state and district administration from doing as they please in the ward in which that MP is the honourable member?  I don't think it works like that here in our beloved land. It all depends on who the MP is and how powerful the said MP is for the state and the district to consult the MP and abide by the MP’s instructions if they have been asked to do so.

How does a green, luscious and serene hill station turn to a landslide prone area in a span of the last three decades, if corruption doesn’t have a hand in it? Who approves all the building plans in the area? Does the honourable MP do it? Who approves the land clearance, who gives temporary occupiers licenses, who approves of vegetable farms on slopes without a proper study undertaken by the Department of Environment?

Yes, the honourable MP is the minister in charge of the environment but that was only lately after the last general elections. The damage to Cameron Highlands has been occurring for longer than that.

Is it fair to blame Palanivel, the current MP, for the present state of affairs?

Off late, Utusan Malaysia has jumped on the bandwagon to criticise the president of the MIC by saying that he ought to step down if he is unable to perform and respond to the opposition. Since when have they become the whips to ensure who performs and who doesn’t? Did the last head of the MIC have this type of bad press from an ally-aligned news medium?

This only goes to show how much respect they have for the Indian ally in the alliance. Yes, the press is the fourth estate of the state which ensures that the other three perform, but does the leader of the Indian ally in the alliance deserve this kind of a press?

Landslides and the impact which the environment has endured due to development in the Camerons could have been contained had the Department of Environment and the respective district offices and state governments cooperated in ensuring that only sustainable development takes place in the Camerons, as opposed to just clearing land at whim with letters from the authorities and allowing un-contained farming of vegetable and green produce to take place.

Vast monetary gains

All these activities only point to one direction, which is none other than the vast monetary gains that can be made if one is willing to put in the hours and has the right area to do vegetable farming in the Camerons. One wonders what responsibility does the district office and the state government shoulder if all calamities which occur in a given area is to be blamed on the Member of Parliament for that area?

Does the MP have special allocations besides what is usually given to BN MPs to disburse in their respective constituencies? Even if that is the case, an MP’s allocation will not be able to cover environmental damage that needs rectification. What then do the district offices and the state government do? Sit down and enjoy a monthly salary from the consolidated fund?

MIC politics has always been a clash of personalities and caste. The stronger the personality and the larger caste following an aspirant has in the MIC, the greater his chances are to become its leader. The communal and caste mindset has not rubbed off the minds of the members and the ardent devotees of the party.

The last president was a very strong character and had a very large personality which every leadership level of the Alliance coalition respected. The last president ensured that he was the only full minister amongst the rest of his leading team to ensure that he gets his way at the end of the day, be it party matters or national policy.

Today, since the dawn of the new era, where the usually docile and submissive Indian Malaysian electorate have woken up to find out that they can actually vote many better candidates besides the usual menu of candidates that they get from the ruling alliance, there are now two full Indian Malaysian ministers in the cabinet.

One having a very unpredictable portfolio which is the environment, and the other having a more hands-on portfolio which concerns the health of all in the nation. Two captains make it difficult for a ship to sail in any given direction.

The environmental pillage in the Camerons is not the fault of the lawmaker who represents the constituency, it is the joint responsibility of the district office under whose jurisdiction it comes within and finally that of the state in which it falls in. The MP being the minister in charge of the environment could have done more by going about all the state branches of the Department of Environment to see if policies are being implemented and enforced.

If it takes the MP of a constituency to get the district officer to do his job effectively and to see that enforcement is done, then all that can be said is that neglect is not only on our environment but in our administration as well.

Long used as scapegoats

The president of the MIC may not be popular with some but he is the president of an ally in the ruling alliance. Indian Malaysians in this country have been long used as scapegoats when things go wrong or when blame needs to be shouldered. This is basically done because those who put the blame know that the Indian Malaysians are a very disunited lot and are easily provoked to fight amongst themselves whilst the actual culprits are let off.

The Malay press may be interested to see who can bring the Indian Malaysian votes back into the BN barn again, but those days are gone. Indian Malaysians today are capable of thinking before they vote and many have become enlightened after the Hindraf revolution to come out and become registered voters and finally vote with a conscience as oppose to blindly backing any Alliance candidate.

The Malay press will not like it if the Tamil press speaks on the state of affairs in Umno and what was recently said in its AGM on issues relating to the non-Malays, sedition, race and religion. There have been comments from ex-members of the judiciary with regard to the size of Hindu deities in Hindu places of worship, if the Tamil press were to respond to this and criticise its Malay counterpart, it will not be well-received.

Therefore, instead of finding the easy way out by blaming others let us make sure that we administer what we are entrusted with well. Be it district, state or nation; if a responsibility is given and it has been executed without bending the rules to accommodate greed; nature and the environment will understand.