What the Indians want

THE Malaysian Indian community is at adefining moment Comprising just 1 8million or roughly 8 at the country s

26 million population it has never been sopolitically divided Although the MIC thethird largest component party at the BarisanNational represents the community in theGovernment the political allegiance of

Indians is splitThe Gerakan PPP Indian Progressive

Front DAP Parti Keadilan Rakyat andDemocratic Indian United Party have theirshare of Indian members and supporters

The recent street protest led by the HinduRights Action Force Hindrat sparked byperceptions that Indians have been marginalised has led to the community becoming afocus of the national political debate withthe MIC and its leadership coming underintense scrutiny

The debate revolves around the commu

nity s lack at a meaningful stake in theeconomy opportunities to progress in education employment and business and itsdisproportionate representation in crimestatistics

Are the grievances affecting the Indiansreal What are the solutions What needs to

be done to move the community forwardHave the more successful members of the

community played their part Cafe Lattediscusses the topics

The Indian community and politicsWong In the coining general election

various political parties will represent theIndian community The community is smallyet it is fragmented into so many differentgroups What is your take on this DrDenison

Dr Denison If you take the political parties MIC PPP IFF Gerakan it might seemfragmented but they are all invariably proBarisan National and cohesively part of itsframework But if you look at oppositionparties such as DAP Parti Keadilan Rakyatand Parti Sosialis Malaysia there is alsoquite a number of them there But the central issue is the composition of the constituencies No Indian can win just on theIndian ticket The community needs the support of other communities An example isthe case of the Sreenivasagam brothers whowon in the 1959 elections for the Socialist

Front Back then we had more Indians inthe Opposition than in the MIC Having saidthat the fragmented parties that we seenow will have a major impact on the

general election For example the MerdekaPoll survey conducted recently found thatsince September there has been a 44 dropin positive views towards the governmentThere were also other indicators showingthe people s unhappiness towards the gov

ernment and its policies The question herehowever is whether such findings willimpact the outcome of MIC candidates whohold nine parliamentary seats and 19 stateseats The MIC is sure that it will retain the

nine parliamentary seatsDr Ramasamy Going back to the 1990

elections I think that a slight majority of theIndian community voted for the OppositionBut in the subsequent election it was backto status quo I think the difference this timearound is the mobilisation created byHindraf Based on the turnout of the event

that day it would be safe to say the Indiansknow they can be king makers in particularconstituencies There are also indications

that the popularity of the ruling governmenthas gone down But then again we must askwhether the Indians will remain faithful toBarisan National

Wong There s talk that because of theHindraf issue many controversies havearisen As a result is there a fear in the community that its representation inGovernment may decline because of the

anti establishment sentiments

Devakunjari We have to go back intohistory where the initial premise of Malayawas power sharing among the races Thiswas needed back then to show the British

that we could and deserved our independence But here we find a situation where

the government relies on MIC to producefeedback and solutions to the communityAnd there are perceptions that MIC is notbeing given enough airplay within the government and that it has not really done itsjob Neither perception assists BN in securing the Indian votes The reason whyHindraf received such popular response wasbecause the Indians at least at the grassroots level believed that no one else speaksfor them and highlights their grievances

Dr Denison Indian votes make a difference in 62 constituencies and we will beking makers if there is a split in the Chineseand Malay community You might be themost hardened Indian candidate but youcannot win the seat because you do nothave 100 Indian voters in the constituencyBut the shift I would say based on the sur

vey is that the people are unhappy Butwhether this will translate into votes is a

different matter altogether This is becauseHindraf is not aligning itself to any politicalparty

Wong What about the perception thatMIC has not done enough for the community as stated by Devakunjari

Devakunjari Only now are there so manygroups talking about the Indian problemSuddenly there is interest in the community I ve sat in various forums and the pertinent question that always arises is What isthe available aid being given by the government now In one particular forum theDomestic Trade and Consumer Affairs

Ministry informed us that there is a 3 allocation on every initial public offering for theIndian community Sadly it didn t filterdown because there is no methodology Sothe question that some people are asking iswhy certain things such as this which isavailable within the system are not given adelivery route to the poor Indians

Dr Denison I think in terms of perception the documentation of Indian problemseven from the start focused on plantation

difficulties and related issues Things likesalary housing and working conditions centred on this premise The more recent oneshave been analysis on the urban trends andshifts If one were to look at documents presented by Mapen 1 the first NationalEconomic Consultative Council the analysisof problems and issues are there If you takeOPP 3 Third Outline Perspective Plan forexample it begins to recognise for the firsttime the Indian issues on public policyagenda

Wong But you have said before that thesystem is such that there s nothing you canchange because the community is small

Dr Ramasamy You must agree that theHindraf gathering shook the ground noThey made a huge impact by coming outtogether

Dr Denison I think we still have to goback to the core of the problem wherebyunder the Federal Constitution it is statedthat the special privileges of the Malay community is balanced with the legitimaterights of other communities such as freedom of religion positions in the civil serviceright to education and so forth Now if wetake it into more recent policy discussionssuch as the New Economic Policy NEP wesee more of a re structuring of society byaddressing issues such as poverty But when

we come down to OPP 3 1 think there areenough resources and agencies to cater toMalay needs This is highlighted by Mapen 2in documents on crime housing urbanpoverty and education issues

Wong These documents are all fine butthe bottom line is the perception that notenough is being done by the MIC They arebeing compared to Umno and MCA wherethey can see proper structures for development and education such as universitiesand skills development institutions

Dr Denison MIC has done its best within

the power sharing basis and it has extensively contributed in terms of education andskills development We have sent many students abroad on scholarships and even prepared the necessary avenues for those interested in skills training Micro credit financing for small businesses have also beenmade available However the problem isthat the outreach is inadequate We havenot had the necessary interventions fromthe states which is pivotal to addressingthese problems There needs to be anincreased participation through the relevantagencies too

A national problemWong Plantations used to be the forte of

the Indians but foreigners have replacedthem Due to this they have migrated to thetowns and because of the lack of skills theyhave resorted to small businesses such as

car washing and scrap metalDr Ramasamy The problems faced by the

community are not an Indian problem but anational one We are all Malaysians This iswhy when there is the mindset that it is anIndian problem it will be germinated intothe political pillars that MIC can and isresponsible to handle the problem

Dr Denison But this is where the OPP 38th Malaysia Plan RMK8 and RMK9 development plans recognised the low participation of the Indians in the economy andlooked at skills training for the youth Iwould say that such policies have beenproperly outlined and written

Devakunjari I agree that the Indian problem is a Malaysian problem The source ofmany of the problems we see now arosefrom the fact that when the estates weredeveloped in the late 70s there were noproper programmes to resettle rehabilitateor assist this community So they lost this

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Desire for equal rightsFROM PAGE 21

community when they relocated them andthere were no opportunities in terms ofeducation or profession Even today 75 ofTamil schools are not affiliated with the

government However we must agree thatwhen problems arise out of governmentpolicies should not the government takeownership of the solutions and not just delegate the whole exercise to MIC

Dr Denison When we look at the nation

al economic council and the developmentplans it needs aggressive state interventionbecause no one individual or political partycan do it We are doing the best we can

Dr Kamasamy If we go back to Hindrafand take a survey of the people who camewe will find that it was not just the poorplantation people but rather professionalssuch as lawyers and businessmen who feltthey were short changed The question hereis can we brush away all these things

Self helpWong There s this perception that there

is no self help in the community despite theemergence of many successful Indians andmany in the upper middle class There is noreaching out to the grassroots

Dr Shanmuganathan We must realisethat there is no solid middle class for the

Indians It is hollow For example if onewere to go to Masjid India and check theirfinancial statements it is very weak Butpeople perceive that just because it is a bigshop they must be making a lot of moneyThey are hollow businessmen because theyare not fundamentally strong financially Inaddition as of 2004 Indians were said tohave 1 5 equity in the economy I wouldnot be surprised that as of this moment thefigure stands at just 0 9 And from this ifyou take away the slice belonging to the topfive Indian tycoons like Ananda Krishnanand Air Asia s Tony Fernandez and othersthere is just 0 2 for the rest

Education

Wong We ve mentioned the state ofTamil schools Is it true that they are losingtheir appeal

Dr Ramasamy I disagree with you Tamilschools have actually out performed national schools in the last five years The problemwith Tamil schools however is that theyneed more facilities and infrastructure This

is caused by the current system of educationbecause there is less focus on them Despitethis we find that in the last 10 years moreand more parents from the middle class aresending their children to Tamil schools

Dr Shanmuganathan That s true Thisyear the intake for Tamil schools increasedby 30

Dr Denison Although the number of

Tamil schools has dropped the number ofstudents has gone up The discrepancy iswhere the schools are located and where

the people are living Almost 70 of theschools are in estates but the majority ofstudents are in urban areas There is a majordifference between the Indian and the

Chinese community The Chinese buy theland build the school and then get thelicence transferred whereas the Indians ask

the Government to provide the land in theurban areas Therefore schools in the ruralareas have less density

Devakunjari In the last five years Indianparents have found that their children werenot being given enough attention at thenational schools The balance has tipped andTamil schools have become more alert to

the needs of the children This is why morepeople from the middle class prefer to sendtheir children to Tamil schools They wantthem to have this attention and a sense of

cultural identityDr Denison The government has also

said it would allow Tamil to be taught in SJKschools I think these policies would takequite a while to sink in But while there is amajor increase of students in Tamil schoolsthe resources required by the schools are

definitely more There are about 7 000teachers employed now So if infrastructureis improved I m sure that the disgruntledfeeling among Indians would be alleviated

Wong I can t help but notice that wehave kept on referring to asking theGovernment for help I know this is aMalaysian problem but surely there must besome kind of self help

Dr Shanmuganathan There are Severalof my close friends and I for example haveadopted many schools We are payingtuition fees for the students After schoolwe conduct training for them to get betterresults We are also paying the teachers andeven giving them two months bonus but wecannot afford to do the same for all Tamilschools

Dr Denison When we talk about rebuild

ing Tamil schools the bantuan modalschools �2014 they are largely beingrebuiltthrough community funds because the statedoes not provide that Even in the RMK8allocation of RM86mil it was for the bantuan penuh schools So currently they haveallocated about RMGOmil for bantuan modal

schools and the requirement is quite hugeMIC for example has allocated student loansfor up to 7 000 students at RMSSmil

MIC and its leadershipWong I think it is on the minds of many

Malaysians that the MIC has a leadership

problemDr Denison In terms of determining the

MIC president the decision is in the handsof the MIC delegates Regarding the candidates for the general election we have beeninformed that a sizeable change would bemade This is a step forward to newer faces

Devakunjari Regardless of the MIC andits leadership as mentioned earlier theproblems faced by the community is still aMalaysian problem Let us look at the example of single Indian mothers and the problems they face The poverty line index setsat least RM661 per month as the minimumto sustain one s self Most of the singlemothers earn RM550 or less They have twoto three children and have no housing programmes How are they going to live Weare not even talking about food And as faras self help goes it would not make much ofa difference if the government does not stepin

Solutions

Wong We know the cause and the grievances but what can be done

Dr Shanmuganathan Requests and proposals have been made to the PrimeMinister seeking his approval to set up aspecial team under the Prime Minister sDepartment or the Economic Planning unitto come up with a guideline to developIndian businesses The Malays for example

have the Perbadanan National Berhad to

assist them All we are asking for is 10 allocation of the same aid From that allocationthe community can automatically developfor the next 10 years

Wong I ve heard talk about affirmativeaction for the Indians Do you think this ispractical

Devakunjari It depends on what youmean by affirmative action My concern isthat the existing policies are not being filtered into something tangible that can bedelivered There is a Minimum Standards

Act for example to regulate the welfare ofthe plantation workers and yet it is notbeing enforced

Dr Ramasamy It is very simple Indianswant the opportunities and equal rights

Wong But isn t there an Indian quotaprepared for university entries

Devakunjari It does not seem that wayDr Denison University admission issues

aside we have to look at the fundamentalsof education first We have to look at the

grassroots the pre school and primaryschool And as we move along we have toconsider business windows and other

opportunities for the community What I msaying is that what has been promised bythe government in OPP 3 RMK8 and RMK9

must be delivered And one of the suggestions that Mapen 2 requested was for anindependent monitoring mechanism

Wong Who would run this mechanismDr Denison Representatives from civil

societies We need such mechanisms to

make sure the process is one of transparency

Wong What type of programmes wouldyou all like to see to address all these grouses

Devakunjari We would like to see excellent education opportunities from preschool right up to higher education andmore skills training

Dr Shanmuganathan Going back to single mothers in my office I have set up atraining centre for them We teach themmarketing business hands on work and soforth After training we find jobs for themand then we monitor them for at least a

year At the time they come to us theyearn on average about RM550 but we haveassured them that if they follow ouradvice they can make up to RM5 000 permonth So far we ve helped about 225 single mothers

Dr Ramasamy Fundamentally if theGovernment is serious about it and makes it

a national commitment to resolve the issueIndians will feel that they have a place insociety