Malaysian Indian Congress ( MIC ) President S. Vellu - the Indian "feudal lord".Michael Backman
www.michaelbackman.com
Ethnic rivalry in Malaysia usually is portrayed as rivalry between the majority Malay population and the large Chinese minority. But sandwiched between the two are Malaysia's Indians. They make up about 2 million or 8% of the population but according to some estimates they account for around 2% of the nation's corporate wealth. This disparity is leading to rising tensions from a group that the authorities normally take for granted.
The Indian community is split into Muslims and Hindus. The Muslims, known locally as the 'Mamak', tend to blend more easily with the dominant Malays - both being Muslim means that intermarriage is not uncommon. (Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is the product of such a union.) The Hindus on the other hand are far more marginalised. Politically weak and disorganised, they tend to be largely ignored by the government.
Many are very poor. But despite this, as non-Malays and non-Muslims they do not qualify for Bumiputera status – the status given to Malays which gives the Malays preferred access to university places, government share distributions and other such privileges. Some of the poorest work as rubber tappers.
Several years ago I visited several rubber estates in the northern state of Kedah and the poverty and physical condition of the rubber tappers was unbelievable particularly as Malaysia is not a poor country. The plight of the tappers is akin to that of the aborigines in the more remote parts of Australia except that the Australian government pours billions into the community but with little discernible effect.
Malaysia's Indians are among those to suffer the greatest displacement from the million or more legal and illegal Indonesian migrants now in Malaysia. Sporadic ethnic unrest now beaks out between poor Indians and resident Indonesians but rarely is such unrest reported in the Malaysian media – the government directs the local media either not to report it or not to highlight it.
Growing resentment too derives from the demolition of Hindu temples by the various state governments. Dozens have been destroyed in the last few years. All or most targeted for demolition have been built on land to which the temples have no title. Typically the demolitions proceed with a court order and as such are reasonable. The real issue is why do so many of Malaysia's Indians need to squat on land that isn't theirs in the first place?
But it is the manner in which the demolitions are carried out which unnecessarily raises tensions. The authorities who enforce the demolition orders invariably are Malay and Muslim giving such demolitions unfortunate religious rivalry overtones. Sometimes the idols are smashed before worshippers are given a chance to remove them to a safe place, action which is insensitive at best and a deliberate provocation at worst. The most recent temple to be demolished was at Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur on October 30. Scuffles broke out and people were manhandled.
In another perceived sleight, the most important Indian festival Deepavali this year falls on November 8. The (Malay) ruling UMNO party's annual General Assembly is being staged on 5-9 November without stopping for Deepavali even though Deepavali is one of Malaysia's gazetted public holidays. The Malay politicians of yesteryear would not have been this insensitive.
Many better educated Indians are migrating. Those who remain are becoming more strident politically.
On August 12, around 2,000 Malaysian Indians protested outside the prime minister's office to demand better treatment. The protest might have been bigger but according to organisers the police blocked as many as 15 buses carrying Indians from entering the area on the basis that the bus drivers did not have valid driving licences.
On August 30, a class action was filed in London by a group of activists against the UK government for bringing indentured labourers from India during the colonial era and failing to "protect" them thereafter including during the fifty years since Malaysia's independence. The suit will go nowhere of course but it is a calculated attempt to embarrass the Malaysian government internationally to force it to better look after the welfare of the Indian minority. And on November 25, a petition with what activists claim will have 100,000 signatures will be presented to the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur in support of the legal action.
But what of the Indians' political leaders?
Samy Vellu is head of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) party and has been so since 1979. He is also Malaysia' Public Works Minister. Vellu completely dominates the MIC which his critics claim he runs almost along feudal lines.
He was the subject of a major scandal in the early 1990s when the government allocated ten million shares in the country's national telephone company to Maika, an Indian cooperative company set up by the MIC. The company accepted only one million shares. The other nine million were then given to three companies which Vellu described as MIC-linked companies, but which, according to his critics, were actually linked to his relatives. The three companies made tens of millions of dollars in capital gains on the shares. Meanwhile Maika became almost insolvent.
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad when asked why he didn't sack Vellu from his cabinet given this and other scandals replied that he had no control over the MIC's internal processes and that he was obliged to have in the cabinet whomever the MIC chose as its leader. To be fair, Mahathir once told me that Vellu had an appalling job, given how politics is played out in the Indian community with the constant and seemingly trifling demands for gifts and direct assistance. But essentially, Vellu is part of the wider malaise of political leadership from which Malaysia suffers from today.
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