Indians don't need political representation

Maybe it is about time the MIC president S Samy Velu is told, ‘Leave us Indians alone!’. If today Indian Malaysians find themselves in an economic and social quagmire, it is primarily because they alone amongst all of the Indian diaspora are politically represented.

Samy Velu and his predecessors have, over the years, very successfully conditioned the Indian Malaysian to wait on the MIC to deliver. Most are still waiting. Unfortunately, it is the politics of patronage that has imprisoned the Indian to his present condition.

But wait. It is indeed not true that there is no hope for the Indian Malaysian. We are always asked to look at Ananda Krishnan and Tony Fernandes. If they can do it, surely the rest of us can. But Ananda is a Ceylonese Tamil, he is not allowed to join the MIC.

Tony is a Malayalee. Tamil is not his mother-tongue. He will not understand a word of the goings-on in an MIC meeting. The MIC name is a misnomer. It pretends to represent Indian Malaysians but it only represents Indian Tamil Malaysians from Tamil Nadu originally.

Even then, it does not include any Muslims and only the rare Christian goes through. Yet it has hijacked the lives of the entire Indian Malaysian community and kept it at rock bottom with empty promises.

Unfortunately, S Samy Vellu still just does not get it.

But it is not like as if the Indians are not without hope. The Indian diaspora who migrated elsewhere have shown us all how it can be done and that we have what it takes. The last thing we need is political representation. Without political representation, we become the king-makers as many in the diaspora find themselves to be. The MIC is nothing but a subservient servant that leads us into subservience.

It is time the Indians rise up and tell MIC to stop claiming that we, the Indians, are demanding anything from them. How can we demand anything from the MIC and expect anything but subservience when MIC itself is nothing but a subservient party to Umno?

Being the No. 1 subservient party in the country, it can only make us all subservient when, in fact, we can be the master class. Just ask VK Lingam.

Paul Warren
Malaysiakini