Had political parties PKR, DAP and PAS practised genuine multi-racialism by having sincerely championed at least some of the most serious issues concerning Indian Malaysians, controversy would not have arisen over the failure to name an Indian opposition candidate for the Ijok by-election.

We would have preferred Dr Nasir Hashim of PSM who has done genuine grassroots work for all including Indian squatters and plantation workers instead of 'corporate figure' KS Nalakaruppan (who was initially being considered by PKR).

The fact remains that, in the post-1998 era, PKR, DAP and PAS have not done too much for the Indian community, except for issuing rare statements and making token representations in the face of an avalanche of socio-economic problems.

The three parties almost always take up issues based on the political mileage to be gained and not on the gravity of violations of human rights, among other issues.

The Malays (60 percent) and Chinese (30 percent) form the majority of the population. Indians make up a mere 8 percent, but have 200 percent of the problems - in other words, a disproportionately highest rate for suicide, crime, death in police custody and by police shooting, police brutality and marginalisation in the public and private sector employment, university placements, medical seats, business and licence opportunities, deplorable state of Tamil schools - all of which are hardest on the poorest in the community.

So when PKR, DAP and PAS make a political calculation based on population size, they would rather concentrate on the 90 percent and abandon the 8 percent who are deemed to be a political liability.

Barisan Nasional's (BN's) 50 years of marginalisation compounded by further political marginalisation through the conduct of opposition parties has reduced the community to the 'blacks of Malaysia' as far as genuine multi-racial politics is concerned.

We are taking leaps and bounds backward compared to the US where African-Americans are - or have the opportunity to be - represented at the highest level of government and politics.

PKR, DAP and PAS have become carried away by BN's race-based politics. Since 1998, they have taken this a step further by going for the kill when it comes to 'Indian seats' they see as soft targets. This happened in the 1999 and 2004 general elections and Teluk Kemang and Lunas by-elections (2000).

Being played out five times in a row within a span of eight years is too much to stomach especially against PKR's claim to "genuine multi-racialism". Remember, after the 1999 general election, scores of Indian PKR members left in protest for this same reason and formed the pro-tem Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (PRIM).

Genuine ideology?

There are no parliamentary or state seats with an Indian majority. As it stands, Indians in the BN are under-represented by at least 50 percent, holding 10 parliamentary and 20 state seats out of 222 parliamentary and 576 state constituencies. Proportionately, they should have 18 parliamentary and 47 state seats, if not more because of their vulnerable minority status.

PKR, DAP and PAS in displaying "genuine multi-racialism" - even magnanimity - should have given up some of their safest seats (as Umno has done within BN) to make up the shortfall.

The PKR leadership's contention is that there should not be 'Indian seats, Malay seats or Chinese seats'. Try standing in the 'Chinese seats' of Seputeh, Cheras or Sungai Besi and DAP will tell PKR to take a walk. Similarly, PKR will tell DAP Chinese candidates to take a walk if they want to contest in Permatang Pauh, Kubang Kerian or Tumpat.

If Indian opposition supporters in Teluk Kemang, Lunas or Ijok had 50 percent or more of the votes, they would have long told PKR, DAP and PAS to take a walk. The fact remains that they do not form the majority and are thus repeatedly bullied in the name of "genuine multi-racialism".

What PKR, DAP and PAS have been doing since 1998 is to snatch whatever few seats Umno has given the Indians in BN. Had Anwar Ibrahim remained in the BN as deputy prime minister or more likely the prime minister, would he have replaced the MIC candidate in Ijok with a Malay candidate, however winnable that may have been?

Please don't tell us about "genuine multi-racialism" and "winnability" which is really about winnability based on the ethnicity of the majority of the voters. Why can't it be the other way round where an Indian candidate represents all, including the Malay majority?

We do not believe that the predicament of Indians in the opposition is not known to the PKR, DAP and the PAS leadership. It is a simple case of a political bully taking political advantage of the vulnerable political position of a minority group.

Could we also see justice in the National Justice Party, democracy in the Democratic Action Party and principles of fairness in PAS on behalf of Indians in the opposition ranks?
P UTHAYAKUMAR is pro-tem secretary-general of PRIM.