I am a Tamil, an Indian Malaysian. I have followed the media's growth in the country in-depth. I know that when TV3 was launched in 1985, there wasn't any Tamil programme or movie shown.

The then MIC Youth leader DP Vijandran (I must admit a very capable leader) staged a protest at TV3's old broadcast centre at Bangsar. I was there to support his mission where he argued that a whole community is forgotten when it is not given importance by the mainstream media. Immediately, Tamil programmes was shown on TV3, a station widely known to us as a station controlled by Umno .

However, I want to tell my fellow Tamilians in this country that TV3 has neglected its Tamil audience for the past five years ever since. The station has drastically reduced Tamil programmes and replaced them with Indonesian, Phillippines and Thai shows.

My many calls to this station to inquire why there are no good Tamil shows being aired have brought no results. I wonder why this Umno-controlled channel changed its programming strategies after Pak Lah took over the prime minister's mantle.

It is proven that when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the PM with Anwar Ibrahim as his deputy, we Tamils got to watch more Tamil shows not only over TV3, but also on NTV7 and Channel 9. Is the MIC aware that Tamils are now marginalised by all these Umno-owned television stations?

Once Maika Holdings had a stake in TV3 and DP Vijandran was a board member. Maika exhausted its interest in TV3 and the rest is history. MIC and the Tamils must realise, especially the poor Tamils, that the Umno-controlled TV stations do not have any care and respect for Malaysian Tamils. Can MIC leaders deny it?