Najib’s plea for ‘nambikei’ backfires: Not a single vote should the Indians give him!

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is not going to get anywhere with his pathetic Thaipusam Day plea that the Indian community continue to place their trust (nambikei) in his Umno. That’s probably the only word he knows in Tamil.

The shameless message, insulting the intelligence of the community, can be found in his http://www.1malaysia.com.my blogsite.

It’s downright sacrilegious and blasphemy of the highest order to pollute a Holy Day of penance, prayer, fasting and meditation with cheap politics. Najib’s Hindu guru, astrologer or whoever advises the PM on Indian affairs should be sacked immediately or if it was not this person's fault but the MIC's, then he desert Najib immediately in protest

‘Nambikei’ is the wrong kind of message to employ with a community swearing by makkal sakthi (people power) since the Hindraf Uprising of Nov 25, 2007 in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the Rose Rally in Putrajaya in mid-Feb the following year and the Mar 2008 political tsunami which swept the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance into power in five states and Kuala Lumpur.

Semi-slaves

After over 50 years of what can best be described as semi-slavery under Umno, the underclass in Malaysia are suffering the most. Najib's ruling party has clearly run out of credibility and goodwill among the Indian community. To add insult to injury, Najib constantly keeps mouthing empty messages, meaningless, directed at the community.

At the same time, he maintains the fiction that the Indians are now returning in droves to the MIC or Malaysian Indian Congress, Umno’s lapdog and poodle, and a Barisan Nasional (BN) already headed for the dustbin of history, after squatting on the people for more than half a century.

Government pledges -- although not requested -- remain pledges, allocations remain allocations, all on paper. The civil service, controlled by just one community dominated by fanatics and racists, is unlikely to release any funds to the Indian community or make good any of the Najib pledges so far.

Not a single vote should Indians give Najib

Najib can talk himself hoarse until the cows come home, or stomp on even more cow-heads, about nambikei. The Indians will not budge even an inch.

He will not get even one Indian vote at the 13th General Election, widely expected between May this year and next May, i.e. if he doesn’t emulate his notorious father in 1969 and declare a state of emergency. Even one Indian vote for Najib and Umno will be one vote too many, a wasted vote signaling continued semi-slavery.

The majority of Indian votes, this time, are going to take the cue from the Pakatan Rakyat, and there are plenty of signs on this emerging development.

There has only been ominous silence from Indian NGOs, Hindraf Makkal Sakthi and the Human Rights Party (HRP) on Najib’s Thaipusam Day message.

Hindraf Chief P Waythamoorthy should at least say something about Najib’s plea for nambikei once he gets over his shock and horror at the nerve of it all. His UK-based Human Rights Foundation of Malaysia should chip in as well with its take on the issue.

The others, Indian NGOs, may want to contribute as well with their two sen worth of thoughts. Otherwise, the people at large may think that Najib has spoken the Gospel Truth.

But, we don’t want to hear from MIC.

Indians are not imbeciles

The Indian community expects the Umno Government to institute real reforms and not try to pawn them off as some imbeciles who can be bought by throwing “non-existent” money at them.

Getting into gimmicks and cosmetics by employing the language of hype and more hype will no longer work given the disintegration of MIC in the internet age.

The Indian community is not looking for government hand-outs, monetary or otherwise, at the expense of the others and the nation.

The Indian community has pride and would rather stand on their own two feet and work their way through problems themselves.

However, this is an extremely difficult task for the community since Umno has been determined from day one, following the withdrawal of British intervention in 1957, to deny them their rightful place in the Malaysian sun.

Voiceless and faceless

The Indians don’t have even one ethnic majority seat, in the state assemblies or Parliament, in Malaysia despite nearly a million of them being on the electoral rolls. Contrast this with the 800,000 voters in Sabah, for example, who have 6- state seats and 26 seats – including Labuan – in Parliament.

The Indians remain voiceless and faceless in the Malaysian political theatre and arena.

As one example, the community is saddled with 450,000 stateless people who continue to be criminally exploited as a readily available source of local cheap labour and one supplemented and complemented by an influx of illegal immigrants and foreign labour which affects other Indians, among others, the most.

If Indians are being wooed by Najib, it’s simply because they forming a decisive block in 67 of the Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia.

The Indians can only opt for this or that block of parties in Parliament with no guarantees that they would be beneficiaries in the process.

Discrimination

Having no political power has also seen Indians being discriminated against in all walks of life in Malaysia with even that the little that they have being taken away from them.

One example is the government’s withdrawal of recognition of foreign universities where Malaysian students of Indian origin predominate. In particular, medical students have been affected. They are denied places in local government-owned universities under an infamous blanket quota system where race, not merit as it should be, is the criteria.

Hindu temples, as yet another example, continue to be demolished even as the Najib Government grandly announces some measly allocations on paper. The civil service blocks such allocations for fear that they would rot in the eternal fires of hell.

It’s the same story with Tamil schools which are all squatting on private and government land and hence are not eligible to receive Education Ministry grants. Tamil schools have degenerated into nothing more than cowsheds despite the language itself being the oldest living one in human history.

The Ministry is more interested in ensuring that all students read a so-called literature text book which labels all Indians in Malaysia as the descendants of night-soil carriers (pariahs). Nothing could be more demeaning and dehumanizing than this. The Ministry has yet to budge on the issue.

How can a Government which claims to subscribe to Islamic values root for such systemic oppression? Patently, Najib’s plea for ‘nambikei’ sticks in his throat, and will choke his administration to death soon, and with good reasons too.

Malaysia Chronicle