Indians: Malaysia's dispossessed
MUSINGS<br>SuguPublished: Jan 2, 2001 3:56 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
The spectacular Sydney 2000 Olympics opening ceremony put to shame the Atlanta edition which came through as a third-rate Hollywood production. It also delivered a surprise when the country's Aborigines were given a major role despite the acrimonious relationship between them and the white government.
It could be that the original inhabitants' role in the history of the continent could not be ignored, but still their share of the world's premier sporting event was generous and provided a visual feast.
One just could not help but cast the mind to our hosting of the Commonwealth Games two years ago. We patted ourselves on the back for the grandness of the opening ceremony, as did quite a number of foreigners.
I was still working then and the following day I had to field questions from outraged Indians who wanted to know why the community had been left out of the opening ceremony's cultural show. I had to exercise restrain and patience as the callers vented their spleen. Their anger was justified.
A whole community treated as though they didn't exist. As though their feelings did not matter a jot. The history of their contributions to the nation practically dumped into the bin.
And there at the grandstand seated at the VIP section was the self-proclaimed leader of the Indian community and president of MIC, S Samy Vellu, together with his other cabinet colleagues. What thoughts ran through his mind in those moments will remain his secret. As far as I can recollect, there was not a single peep out of him over the issue.
Another telling example is of the two Indian members of the Malaysian expedition who made it to the peak of Mt Everest. Shortly thereafter a question was raised in Parliament: "Why didn't the two wait for the others to catch up with them?" The query, of course, came from the government side of the House.
What that MP did not realise was the shocking ignorance he had displayed which did not reflect well at all on the August House. Did he really think that ascending the highest mountain in the world is as challenging as a stroll around his garden? What was implied in that question is, how dare the Indians be the first. The MP must have drawn his inspiration from the "30 percent" Umno mentality.
Muddled thinking
These two incidences crystalise the treatment meted out to members of this community for ages.
Then in last year's general election, they went out and voted for Barisan Nasional, playing a crucial role in the results of some constituencies. Presumably because they could not really trust the opposition or were so thoroughly brainwashed that they voted like automatons.
What provoked this froth at the mouth is the sudden resurfacing of the Indian gangsters issue after a five-year lapse. There should be no muddled thinking about this. The problem is mostly confined to the Tamil-speaking community and should not embrace the others who also share the Indian tag.
Because the country has been so heavily racially politicised, the question why the sudden lather over the high percentage of Indian criminal elements in society rises. Suspicion also grows that the government's main motive for this display of a caring attitude could be a cynical vote-getting tactic.
It's not that far-fetched an idea when seen in the context of Prime Minister and Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad personally taking charge of reviving the fortunes of a very factionalised party, apparently taking a leaf out of PAS' book of non-stop political campaigning.
One can be sure that he is keeping eyes on the next poll, which is approaching at a steady clip, when every vote will count. While the Umno president sets out on his task to win back Malay support, two corporations are chipping in with their TV commercials to court the others including Indians.
One comes from Petronas whose video clip shows a palm oil plantation with rows of white-clad young Indians doing stretching exercises. The camera zooms in on a little girl who smiles ever so prettily. The eyes are big and sparkle with good health.
The message is on racial unity but the subliminal one appears to be that Indians never had it so good. A squatter colony location would have been closer to the truth but that would have defeated the purpose of the exercise in illusion.
The other by Milo highlights Indian athletes breasting the tape in various track events. The prominence given to the community is rare, bordering on non-existent. But I am quite sure that quite a few Indians' laugh would have been laced with bitterness.
The commercials could be a hit with those waddling jewellery cases clad in dhoti and silk shirts and sarees that gather annually to celebrate their status in society and listen to Samy Vellu's monologue and swallow his scoldings without a murmur. These people, constant travellers to India, live in a world light-years from those families who have lost members to the underworld through circumstances beyond their control.
Those families are the dispossessed. Exchanging their lives in rubber estates for squatter colonies and now languishing in crowded longhouses. With promises of proper housing reneged on they have little hope of ever moving into homes of their own.
They drifted to squatter settlements after being chucked out of house and home when rubber land was sold for development where the drive for profits takes precedence over human misery. Children growing up in such an environment face a future heavily pregnant with uncertainties and fear. With hardly any difference between squatter colonies and longhouses in their squalor and stink, they provide rich recruiting grounds for recruitment into a life of crime.
Deaf ears
When Bukit Aman deputy CID director Datuk Ramil Yusof reportedly said there are 38 Indian gangs with more than 1,500 active members, Samy Vellu reacted as if he had been caught with his pants down.
Straightaway he blamed the government for not doing enough to curb the problem as though his pleas for help had fallen on deaf ears, raising the question which government is he talking about. Isn't he a member of the ruling administration?
That statement must have been meant for solely for the consumption of the Indian community. He must think that they are so dense that he and MIC can be absolved from the gangster issue after they have also declared themselves to the sole champions of Indians.
Perhaps it was an attempt at diversionary tactics, so that the community won't ask what the party was doing for five years while the sore was festering. If so, it was a pathetic one.
Then he turned his accusing his eyes on rich towkays, saying they are the ones who are recruiting Indian youth into their triad societies. Why has he been keeping this a closely guarded secret? If he can say towkays then he must know who they are.
There is no indication that he had lodged a police report on the matter. Or is he following his master's example and picking on the Chinese?
Samy Vellu then hogtied himself with this contradiction, saying MIC is the only party that can save Indian youth. Hear that? That was my unhinged jaw crashing to the floor. He has been chanting this saving the Indians mantra ever since when.
Five years since the issue was brought to light by the then deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob, the situation seems to have remained unchanged or turned for the worse. As per normal, MIC swung into action for the benefit of the mass media, cleaning up an Indian settlement off Old Klang Road and then retreated when the issue died down.
Others blame the violence in Tamil films for Indian youth turning to crime which is a simplistic view. However, there in another and more insidious element most people have overlooked. The next time you watch a Tamil movie look out for dollops of self-pity being dealt out in generous proportions. It is an opiate that robs an individual of self-respect and the will to overcome challenges.
Law of karma
My own feeling on this is that the caste system, which I believe has still a strong hold on the community, married to the total belief that one is a helpless victim of the law of karma, have done great damage.
Karma and caste can provide very convenient excuses for not taking any initiative to improve one's lot. In other words, a blind acceptance of fate.
But those who took to a life of crime clearly show that they have broken through the chains that bound them, to prey on the society that had betrayed them.
However, there are others in the ethnic group, members of Indian non-governmental organisations that are doing their best to educate the community and give hope to the younger ones.
This could be a pointer that Indians should no longer look to political parties as their saviour.
In fact, all of us, regardless of race, must learn to manipulate them into serving the interests of society instead of themselves.
Hold politicians hostage with the most effective political weapon - the ballot. It does not matter what side they belong to, the government or opposition. They are all the same no matter what noble sentiments they profess to hold. They are after the most aphrodisiac and addictive of fruits. Power.
The route to that is through the people, so politicians must be made to sweat for the privileges and perks they desire, as the Umno leaders are doing now. At least for that party, a lesson in the proper workings of democracy has been taught and appears to have been learnt.
But pressure must continue to be applied so that people are no longer taken for granted. Those holding public office exist at the pleasure of the people. And the public must not allow itself to be fooled by the words of politicians. Judge them by their actions which they cannot hide.
K SUGU began his journalistic career in 1964 and has worked in the New Straits Times, The Star and The Sun. He became a Buddhist monk in 1981 and had his first taste of press freedom when he worked in Bangkok for The Nation. He is now retired and spends his time writing and trying to get a handle on the fleeting nature of life.
It could be that the original inhabitants' role in the history of the continent could not be ignored, but still their share of the world's premier sporting event was generous and provided a visual feast.
One just could not help but cast the mind to our hosting of the Commonwealth Games two years ago. We patted ourselves on the back for the grandness of the opening ceremony, as did quite a number of foreigners.
I was still working then and the following day I had to field questions from outraged Indians who wanted to know why the community had been left out of the opening ceremony's cultural show. I had to exercise restrain and patience as the callers vented their spleen. Their anger was justified.
A whole community treated as though they didn't exist. As though their feelings did not matter a jot. The history of their contributions to the nation practically dumped into the bin.
And there at the grandstand seated at the VIP section was the self-proclaimed leader of the Indian community and president of MIC, S Samy Vellu, together with his other cabinet colleagues. What thoughts ran through his mind in those moments will remain his secret. As far as I can recollect, there was not a single peep out of him over the issue.
Another telling example is of the two Indian members of the Malaysian expedition who made it to the peak of Mt Everest. Shortly thereafter a question was raised in Parliament: "Why didn't the two wait for the others to catch up with them?" The query, of course, came from the government side of the House.
What that MP did not realise was the shocking ignorance he had displayed which did not reflect well at all on the August House. Did he really think that ascending the highest mountain in the world is as challenging as a stroll around his garden? What was implied in that question is, how dare the Indians be the first. The MP must have drawn his inspiration from the "30 percent" Umno mentality.
Muddled thinking
These two incidences crystalise the treatment meted out to members of this community for ages.
Then in last year's general election, they went out and voted for Barisan Nasional, playing a crucial role in the results of some constituencies. Presumably because they could not really trust the opposition or were so thoroughly brainwashed that they voted like automatons.
What provoked this froth at the mouth is the sudden resurfacing of the Indian gangsters issue after a five-year lapse. There should be no muddled thinking about this. The problem is mostly confined to the Tamil-speaking community and should not embrace the others who also share the Indian tag.
Because the country has been so heavily racially politicised, the question why the sudden lather over the high percentage of Indian criminal elements in society rises. Suspicion also grows that the government's main motive for this display of a caring attitude could be a cynical vote-getting tactic.
It's not that far-fetched an idea when seen in the context of Prime Minister and Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad personally taking charge of reviving the fortunes of a very factionalised party, apparently taking a leaf out of PAS' book of non-stop political campaigning.
One can be sure that he is keeping eyes on the next poll, which is approaching at a steady clip, when every vote will count. While the Umno president sets out on his task to win back Malay support, two corporations are chipping in with their TV commercials to court the others including Indians.
One comes from Petronas whose video clip shows a palm oil plantation with rows of white-clad young Indians doing stretching exercises. The camera zooms in on a little girl who smiles ever so prettily. The eyes are big and sparkle with good health.
The message is on racial unity but the subliminal one appears to be that Indians never had it so good. A squatter colony location would have been closer to the truth but that would have defeated the purpose of the exercise in illusion.
The other by Milo highlights Indian athletes breasting the tape in various track events. The prominence given to the community is rare, bordering on non-existent. But I am quite sure that quite a few Indians' laugh would have been laced with bitterness.
The commercials could be a hit with those waddling jewellery cases clad in dhoti and silk shirts and sarees that gather annually to celebrate their status in society and listen to Samy Vellu's monologue and swallow his scoldings without a murmur. These people, constant travellers to India, live in a world light-years from those families who have lost members to the underworld through circumstances beyond their control.
Those families are the dispossessed. Exchanging their lives in rubber estates for squatter colonies and now languishing in crowded longhouses. With promises of proper housing reneged on they have little hope of ever moving into homes of their own.
They drifted to squatter settlements after being chucked out of house and home when rubber land was sold for development where the drive for profits takes precedence over human misery. Children growing up in such an environment face a future heavily pregnant with uncertainties and fear. With hardly any difference between squatter colonies and longhouses in their squalor and stink, they provide rich recruiting grounds for recruitment into a life of crime.
Deaf ears
When Bukit Aman deputy CID director Datuk Ramil Yusof reportedly said there are 38 Indian gangs with more than 1,500 active members, Samy Vellu reacted as if he had been caught with his pants down.
Straightaway he blamed the government for not doing enough to curb the problem as though his pleas for help had fallen on deaf ears, raising the question which government is he talking about. Isn't he a member of the ruling administration?
That statement must have been meant for solely for the consumption of the Indian community. He must think that they are so dense that he and MIC can be absolved from the gangster issue after they have also declared themselves to the sole champions of Indians.
Perhaps it was an attempt at diversionary tactics, so that the community won't ask what the party was doing for five years while the sore was festering. If so, it was a pathetic one.
Then he turned his accusing his eyes on rich towkays, saying they are the ones who are recruiting Indian youth into their triad societies. Why has he been keeping this a closely guarded secret? If he can say towkays then he must know who they are.
There is no indication that he had lodged a police report on the matter. Or is he following his master's example and picking on the Chinese?
Samy Vellu then hogtied himself with this contradiction, saying MIC is the only party that can save Indian youth. Hear that? That was my unhinged jaw crashing to the floor. He has been chanting this saving the Indians mantra ever since when.
Five years since the issue was brought to light by the then deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob, the situation seems to have remained unchanged or turned for the worse. As per normal, MIC swung into action for the benefit of the mass media, cleaning up an Indian settlement off Old Klang Road and then retreated when the issue died down.
Others blame the violence in Tamil films for Indian youth turning to crime which is a simplistic view. However, there in another and more insidious element most people have overlooked. The next time you watch a Tamil movie look out for dollops of self-pity being dealt out in generous proportions. It is an opiate that robs an individual of self-respect and the will to overcome challenges.
Law of karma
My own feeling on this is that the caste system, which I believe has still a strong hold on the community, married to the total belief that one is a helpless victim of the law of karma, have done great damage.
Karma and caste can provide very convenient excuses for not taking any initiative to improve one's lot. In other words, a blind acceptance of fate.
But those who took to a life of crime clearly show that they have broken through the chains that bound them, to prey on the society that had betrayed them.
However, there are others in the ethnic group, members of Indian non-governmental organisations that are doing their best to educate the community and give hope to the younger ones.
This could be a pointer that Indians should no longer look to political parties as their saviour.
In fact, all of us, regardless of race, must learn to manipulate them into serving the interests of society instead of themselves.
Hold politicians hostage with the most effective political weapon - the ballot. It does not matter what side they belong to, the government or opposition. They are all the same no matter what noble sentiments they profess to hold. They are after the most aphrodisiac and addictive of fruits. Power.
The route to that is through the people, so politicians must be made to sweat for the privileges and perks they desire, as the Umno leaders are doing now. At least for that party, a lesson in the proper workings of democracy has been taught and appears to have been learnt.
But pressure must continue to be applied so that people are no longer taken for granted. Those holding public office exist at the pleasure of the people. And the public must not allow itself to be fooled by the words of politicians. Judge them by their actions which they cannot hide.
K SUGU began his journalistic career in 1964 and has worked in the New Straits Times, The Star and The Sun. He became a Buddhist monk in 1981 and had his first taste of press freedom when he worked in Bangkok for The Nation. He is now retired and spends his time writing and trying to get a handle on the fleeting nature of life.
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