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Wednesday 5 May 2010

Hindraf: Arrogance from Delusions

By Kenny Gan

Hindraf’s National Adviser, N. Ganesan’s claim that Zaid Ibrahim lost the Hulu Selangor by-election because Hindraf/HRP did not campaign for him is both arrogant and delusory.

Micro-analysis of the results shows that the actual swing of Indians to BN was marginal and could be explained by the rampant vote buying. There would be little that HRP could do to counter the pernicious influence of BN’s deep pockets on the poor estate Indians.

In the first place, how much influence does Hindraf and its political offshoot HRP still have among Indians? There is evidence that its influence has waned tremendously as they are unable to muster any meaningful crowd size for any event these days. For example a scant 15 Indians turned for Hindraf’s 2nd anniversary fast and less than 100 Indians turned up when Uthayakumar led a HRP demo against PKR’s HQ in PJ in March 2010.

The reason for their declining support is clear. The original movement has split into a few factions which have gone separate ways such that the original spirit has been diluted. Both Hindraf and HRP have also lost touch with the grassroot Indians. While poor Indians are concerned with bread and butter issues the Ponnusamy brothers are still championing emotive issues like Tamil schools, Hindu temple and Hindu cemeteries for political mileage.

Despite this, Uthaya and his cohorts still speak as if they represent all Indians and arrogantly assert that PR will never reach Putrajaya without their help. This is the delusion of people who have not adjusted to the present. Hindraf continues to live in the faded glory of its past and have never stopped claiming that they caused the 2008 political tsunami. This is not true as the tsunami was caused by all races responding to a complex matrix of factors against BN. To claim that Hindraf single-handedly caused the tsunami is like saying that Hishamuddin’s keris waving was solely responsible for Chinese turning against BN.

HRP should test its strength by fielding its strongest candidate in a by-election with sizable number of Indian voters. It has not contested in the Bagan Pinang and Hulu Selangor by-elections despite a sizable number of Indian voters in those seats. Is it afraid of losing its deposit? HRP should stop claiming that it represents the majority of Indian if it has no confidence to stand in any by-election.

Uthaya’s unrealistic demand that Selangor gives land to all Tamil schools in the state before he supports Zaid Ibrahim in Hulu Selangor shows his arrogance and lack of common sense. With land being such a complex matter his demand is impossible to fulfill although everything involving land seems to be able to be solved with a stroke of the pen to this new politician. Do the Indians really care whose land the school sits on as long as it can operate?

PR should not give in to HRP’s racial demands in a futile bid to get Indian votes. It would be like working with Perkasa to get Malay votes. To do so would be to destroy its multi-racial foundation and drive away other races. PR must reach out to Indians on their own instead of pandering to extremists and indulging in racial politics like a BN clone.

Hindraf’s overbearing arrogance stems from 3 overriding presumptions, namely (1) Hindraf caused the 2008 political tsunami (2) Hindraf speaks for the majority of Indians and (3) PR will never reach Putrajaya without its help. None of them are true but to Hindraf leaders and their small core of fanatical supporters these untruths have become written in stone. Unless they can divest themselves of these delusions they will continue to be unreasonable and arrogant.

HRP is still clinging on to the foolish delusion that it can be a third force to play kingmaker between BN and PR. This is irrational as there is no way it can win any seat in Malaysia based on the Indian vote alone. Its best bet is to try to join BN which is a better fit to its race based model. Meanwhile it should stop barking at PR for its political survival. People are tired of hearing that ‘PR has done nothing for Indians’ and ‘PR is no better than BN’ so when will it sell itself to BN like MMSP?
As for HRP, the so-called ‘Human Rights Party’ it is best to rename itself “Hindu Rights Party” so as not to mislead Malaysians. Where is its voice in the human rights violation of Teoh Beng Hock, Norizan Salleh and Aminulrasyid? If it wants to fight only for Tamil Hindu rights, that is its right but at least it should name itself appropriately. It should also accept the racist label.

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