| Published on 17-03-2008 In World |
| Viewed 1695 times |
| Ethnic Indians deal Badawi a blow |
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Written by
Kamlendra Kanwar |
The results of the Malaysian elections should cast a sobering influence on an arrogant and insensitive Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi who has driven the coalition he leads, Barisan Nasional, to its most pedestrian performance of all times.
That the opposition parties which had a mere 19 members in the national Parliament have this time captured 82 seats in a 222-member House while the ruling rainbow coalition has emerged with 139 seats is testimony to the growing disenchantment with Badawi's style of governance.
In the State assemblies, the Barisan Nasional's performance is even worse. It has had to concede five of the 12 assemblies to the opposition with four of them---Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Perak--- voting for opposition rule for the first time while Kelantan remained an opposition bastion.
If there is one single reason for Badawi's poor showing it is his brush with the Hindu Action Rights Force which faced the ire of the coalition when it led a march protesting over discriminatory policies against the ethnic Indians.
The Indians have shown that they are no pushovers. Indian voters form significant numbers in at least 67 parliamentary and 141 state assembly seats where they comprise between nine and 46 per cent of the electorate.
Ethnic Indians who had hitherto supported solidly the Malaysian Indian Congress which is a constituent of the ruling coalition have now expressed their anger with it in no uncertain terms. It's longtime leader, Samy Velu was effectively trounced in the general elections and so were all the other prominent office-bearers of the once-powerful outfit.
Samy Velu, who lorded it over the MIC for close to three decades had become autocratic and insensitive to the aspirations of the Indian rank and file for opportunities on par with the Malays and the ethnic Chinese. The manner in which he spurned the Hindraf demand angered the ethnic Indian masses a great deal.
In August last Hindraf had approached Prime Minister Badawi with a memorandum seeking the setting up of a high-powered committee to go into the shocking plight of the Indian community.
The memo claimed that many in this new underclass with no or very little upward mobility and/ or equal opportunity are forced into crime (60% of Malaysian detainees are Indians though they only form about 8 per cent of population-Suhakam 2005) or end up committing suicide which is 1000 per cent higher than the Malays (Utusan Malaysia 12.9.2005). The Indian problems are at a very critical stage with 70 per cent being in the poor and hard care poor category, the memorandum said.
When Hindraf led a rally against discrimination in November, the police came down hard on the agitators. Many were arrested, of whom five are still in jail under a draconian law which provides for indefinite detention without trial.
It is a measure of the support that they enjoy that one of the five, M. Manoharan, has won the election with a thumping majority on the ticket of a multi-racial opposition party.
Indeed, the Prime Minister's gamble in calling a snap election has well and truly failed. To add to Badawi's woes his one-time mentor and predecessor, Mahathir Mohammed, has joined the chorus for his resignation.
Instead of pretending to be happy with his limited victory, it is time Badawi realizes that it would be prudent to address the issue of discrimination about which ethnic Indians are sore, in the larger interests of peace and harmony in the country.
He must see the writing on the wall and act to repair the damage. Malaysia has prided itself in its multi-racial character. But the handicaps and discrimination faced by the ethnic Indians is getting increasingly pronounced.
Since Badawi has refused to quit, he must set about in right earnest in healing the sores. As for Samy Velu, he must make way for a younger leadership in the MIC which empathizes with the rank and file ethnic Indian and works to ameliorate their conditions.
If the economic conditions of the Indian immigrants do not improve and the handicaps they suffer from are not removed, the Malaysian Government would have only itself to blame if some among the Indians fall a prey to extremist elements in engineering violence against the state. |
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