MIC lost relevance 38 years ago, says Niat chief

 (Malaysiakini) INTERVIEW The MIC lost its relevance in politics and to the Indian community as far back as 1974, said National Indian Rights Action Team (Niat) chairperson Thasleem Mohd Ibrahim.

"It started becoming irrelevant much earlier, but (former MIC president) S Samy Vellu had his own way of making the party appear relevant," Thasleem told Malaysiakini in an interview last week.

His statement contrasts with the popular view that S Samy Vellu, who assumed office in 1979, was the cause of MIC's downfall, culminating in the 2007 Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) rally, which brought some 30,000 protesters onto the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Thasleem, a long-time Tamil education activist, claimed that the MIC in 1974 forwarded a memorandum to the Cabinet Committee on Education, but its proposals got nowhere.

The memorandum, he said, called for the upgrading of Tamil schools and syllabi, better teacher training and residential schools to be set up to "enable Indian students to overcome the debilitating effects of their socio-economic environment."

"If the cabinet committee did not agree to this, why didn't (then MIC president) V Manickavasagam walk out of the Alliance Party?" he asked, adding that the time then was ripe because MIC had no competition for Indian support.

Answering his own question, Thasleem said the MIC kept silent and stayed on with the Alliance - all for the survival of its leadership.

"They thought that it was more important that they are okay and their families are okay," he said.

He added that of the many opportunities MIC had to "put its foot down" for the Malaysian Indian community, this was the greatest.

MIC member for three decades

Thasleem is best known for spearheading the opposition against the controversial book Interlok until its withdrawal from the Malay literature syllabus last year.

Back then, Niat stood for ‘National Interlok Action Team', but was changed to National Indian Rights Action Team after the government withdrew Interlok, so that the organisation can continue to campaign on other educational issues for the community.

A long-time MIC member - he was in the party from 1974 until 2007 - Thasleem praised Samy Vellu as a leader who did the best under his circumstances, but said the former MIC chief had a fatal flaw.

"He did a lot of good things. He started the (MIC education arm) Maju Institute for Educational Development (MIED), sort of started the Tafe (Technical) College, and all those things.

"The only problem with Samy Vellu was he didn't want to keep good people with him. All the intelligent ones around him - unless you are a yes-man - you can't survive!" Thasleem said.

He attributed the former works minister's fall from grace in 2010 entirely to his poor selection of advisers.

Asked about the current MIC president's leadership, he said, "G Palanivel is a good man - there are no two ways about it. But I don't think he is an effective leader."

Pressed further, Thasleem said no BN leader was truly concerned about the respective community he claimed to represent.

Asked about Hindraf's place in the Indian community, Thasleem appealed to the movement to give Pakatan Rakyat a chance.

Five years after its mammoth rally of November 2007, the movement has since splintered into groups like the pro-BN Malaysian Makkal Sakhti Party (MMSP) and the anti-BN Human Rights Party (HRP).

Hindraf de facto leader P Uthayakumar has decried Pakatan's failure to address the needs of the Indian poor and intends to contest in a number of its seats, creating the possibility of three-cornered fights in the coming general election.

Hindraf has since distanced itself from Uthayakumar's statement, saying that it was his 'personal view'.

'I share Hindraf's pain'

Thasleem said: "My appeal to my friends in Hindraf is: I share all the pain. I share all the trouble and whatever they have gone through.

"Like what Pakatan is saying - if they go to Putrajaya now, the whole scenario would be different.

"Another four or five years is not going to bury the community for good. We have already gone through this for 55 years. I have lost hope that BN would ever, ever look at the Indian issues genuinely."

Thasleem also said Hindraf should be given due credit for catalysing for what would become known as the 2008 political tsunami.

"Of course, the Chinese votes did matter. There was a lot of change within the Malay community also.

"But to me, I think Hindraf played a very, very, prominent role because everybody was going around campaigning using the term ‘makkal sakthi' (people power).

"Right from (PKR de facto leader) Anwar Ibrahim all the way through Pakatan to DAP, PKR and even PAS were saying ‘makkal sakthi', which was basically Hindraf," he said.

However, Thasleem is of the opinion that the rally would have been an even bigger success if it had championed Indian Muslim issues as well.

"Why should you call it as ‘Hindu rights'? Why can't you call it ‘Indian rights', where people like us... I have said that even Indian Muslims have problems!"

He added that were Indian Muslims who ‘quietly' turned up at the Hindraf rally, wearing their songkok so that they could be identified.

However, more Muslims would have come if the rally's cause was not confined to Hindu issues, Thasleem said.