By P Dev Anand Pillai,
It may seem like a historic feat for Prime Minister Najib Razak to return to how his father had run his cabinet way back in the 70s with two Indians being given a full ministership.
Will the two ministers be given portfolios that can uplift the Indians from the years of neglect? Or will it be another sweetener to get Indian votes and then make them beggars again?
Take education as a prime example; when we see the day when Chinese and Tamil languages be brought back as a Pupil's Own Languages (POL) subject in our national schools? Why can't we be like Singapore, the nearest country whose example that we can learn from, where we see that knowing another language is important and it helps them secure places in universities and scholarships later as they further their studies.
Here it is always about race and positions. Today's schools' leadership roles are all dominated by the Malays; will we see more Indian headmasters and headmistresses appointed? Will we see more Indian males being given a chance and encouraged to take up teaching as a profession and staying in schools to teach and mould our future generations, just like what they did in the yesteryears?
What the current set of MIC leaders have forgotten is that as they had concentrated on amassing wealth when they found that all their pleas were falling on deaf ears, the Indians were going through a phase of transformation from rural agricultural based livelihoods to becoming the new urban underclass. They had no other alternative but to come to the urban areas when their estates cashed in on the lucrative land track deals that land hungry developers were after.
With the emergence of this new underclass coupled with the fact that many Indians were retiring from civil service and not being replaced by Indians but by Malays, the Indians were simply left to fend for themselves.
Some had connections, whilst others had an opportunity to enter into the 'Ali Baba' mode of doing business. It did help somewhat but the vast majority where simply left behind.
Without much education except that for mother tongue education, many from this urban underclass had to look to other means to survive. Crime was one of the easiest ways out and that is one reason why the Indians form the majority of those who are being held under the Emergency Ordinance(EO) in Simpang Renggam, Johor.
Will the two ministers address these issues and allow the hardworking Indians a chance to show their mettle without succumbing to the 'Ali Baba' model? Will Indians be given loans? Will we see Indian appointment in government linked companies (GLCs) ?
Can we see Indians being allowed to own and run petrol stations? Will we see Indians who are now doing well in the scrap metal business be encouraged to go big in the metal industry and become the next Laskmi Mittal?
Or will these two ministers tell the Indians that they will have to succumb to the 'Ali Baba' model after all, and depend on the Malays for licenses, sub-contracts and other forms of government hand-outs which are dished out to the Malays first as part of 'affirmative action', who then sell them to the Chinese and the Indians?
Instead of giving two full ministerships, it will be better to have bold and courageous Indian leadership who will question the PM and his cabinet if there has been negligence and neglect like what we saw in the death in police custody of A Kugan, and ask that Indian equity be raised based on the ability of the Indians in free market without begging the Malays for licenses and forcing them to take on bumi sleeping partners just for the sake of fulfilling the 30 percent stake that the Malays demand, without lifting a finger?
None of the current set of MIC leaders have been bold enough to debate with the government on fundamental constitutional rights and human rights. It has always been the opposition Indian leaders, who always have to pay the price for being bold enough to demand that the government responds, so will giving two full ministerships do any good here?
Further with most of the current set of MIC leaders being educated in the 'Samy Vellu School of Politics and Social Governance' of the Indians, we can expect more camps and factions amongst the party members instead of good and healthy competition.
Furthermore, the two full ministers will have to have the courage to debate with the Malays in the education ministry as to why the novel Interlok was introduced as a history textbook when there are better books written before by other well known educationists in the country of whom many were Indians.
What the two full ministers will have to do is to make sure that the Malays understand what the concept of equality is and the Indians believe in the concept of equality, instead of simply accepting whatever that has been stated in Article 153 of the federal constitution.
The Indian founding fathers may have traded these rights for a right to stay here and become citizens but today after nearly 800 years of history and active relations for the past 300 years, aren't we Indians also the 'putras' of this 'bumi' ?
Why must we tolerate being called and made fun of as pariahs and pendatangs? Why must the term 'go back to India' come to the forethought of Malay politicians each and every time there is a spat with the Indians?
Why must we stomach the threat of revoking citizenships? Will the two ministers stand up for this?
Therefore having two Indian ministers in the cabinet is not enough, it must dawn on the prime minister that he is not just a PM for the Malays but he must acknowledge that Chinese and Indians also make up what we call Malaysians, and their problem is a Malaysian problem which every leader be it Malay, Chinese or Indian will have to share and try to solve to make live better and equal for everyone.
It may seem like a historic feat for Prime Minister Najib Razak to return to how his father had run his cabinet way back in the 70s with two Indians being given a full ministership.
During that
time it was Sambanthan and Manickavasagam - but all that changed after
Samy Vellu took over from Manickavasagam in 1979 and today after 32
years are we getting two ministers.
But will these two ministerships bring in the actual reform initiatives that the Indians need?Will the two ministers be given portfolios that can uplift the Indians from the years of neglect? Or will it be another sweetener to get Indian votes and then make them beggars again?
Take education as a prime example; when we see the day when Chinese and Tamil languages be brought back as a Pupil's Own Languages (POL) subject in our national schools? Why can't we be like Singapore, the nearest country whose example that we can learn from, where we see that knowing another language is important and it helps them secure places in universities and scholarships later as they further their studies.
Here it is always about race and positions. Today's schools' leadership roles are all dominated by the Malays; will we see more Indian headmasters and headmistresses appointed? Will we see more Indian males being given a chance and encouraged to take up teaching as a profession and staying in schools to teach and mould our future generations, just like what they did in the yesteryears?
What the current set of MIC leaders have forgotten is that as they had concentrated on amassing wealth when they found that all their pleas were falling on deaf ears, the Indians were going through a phase of transformation from rural agricultural based livelihoods to becoming the new urban underclass. They had no other alternative but to come to the urban areas when their estates cashed in on the lucrative land track deals that land hungry developers were after.
With the emergence of this new underclass coupled with the fact that many Indians were retiring from civil service and not being replaced by Indians but by Malays, the Indians were simply left to fend for themselves.
Some had connections, whilst others had an opportunity to enter into the 'Ali Baba' mode of doing business. It did help somewhat but the vast majority where simply left behind.
Without much education except that for mother tongue education, many from this urban underclass had to look to other means to survive. Crime was one of the easiest ways out and that is one reason why the Indians form the majority of those who are being held under the Emergency Ordinance(EO) in Simpang Renggam, Johor.
Will the two ministers address these issues and allow the hardworking Indians a chance to show their mettle without succumbing to the 'Ali Baba' model? Will Indians be given loans? Will we see Indian appointment in government linked companies (GLCs) ?
Can we see Indians being allowed to own and run petrol stations? Will we see Indians who are now doing well in the scrap metal business be encouraged to go big in the metal industry and become the next Laskmi Mittal?
Or will these two ministers tell the Indians that they will have to succumb to the 'Ali Baba' model after all, and depend on the Malays for licenses, sub-contracts and other forms of government hand-outs which are dished out to the Malays first as part of 'affirmative action', who then sell them to the Chinese and the Indians?
Instead of giving two full ministerships, it will be better to have bold and courageous Indian leadership who will question the PM and his cabinet if there has been negligence and neglect like what we saw in the death in police custody of A Kugan, and ask that Indian equity be raised based on the ability of the Indians in free market without begging the Malays for licenses and forcing them to take on bumi sleeping partners just for the sake of fulfilling the 30 percent stake that the Malays demand, without lifting a finger?
None of the current set of MIC leaders have been bold enough to debate with the government on fundamental constitutional rights and human rights. It has always been the opposition Indian leaders, who always have to pay the price for being bold enough to demand that the government responds, so will giving two full ministerships do any good here?
Further with most of the current set of MIC leaders being educated in the 'Samy Vellu School of Politics and Social Governance' of the Indians, we can expect more camps and factions amongst the party members instead of good and healthy competition.
Furthermore, the two full ministers will have to have the courage to debate with the Malays in the education ministry as to why the novel Interlok was introduced as a history textbook when there are better books written before by other well known educationists in the country of whom many were Indians.
What the two full ministers will have to do is to make sure that the Malays understand what the concept of equality is and the Indians believe in the concept of equality, instead of simply accepting whatever that has been stated in Article 153 of the federal constitution.
The Indian founding fathers may have traded these rights for a right to stay here and become citizens but today after nearly 800 years of history and active relations for the past 300 years, aren't we Indians also the 'putras' of this 'bumi' ?
Why must we tolerate being called and made fun of as pariahs and pendatangs? Why must the term 'go back to India' come to the forethought of Malay politicians each and every time there is a spat with the Indians?
Why must we stomach the threat of revoking citizenships? Will the two ministers stand up for this?
Therefore having two Indian ministers in the cabinet is not enough, it must dawn on the prime minister that he is not just a PM for the Malays but he must acknowledge that Chinese and Indians also make up what we call Malaysians, and their problem is a Malaysian problem which every leader be it Malay, Chinese or Indian will have to share and try to solve to make live better and equal for everyone.
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