Why Malaysian Indians are mourning the wrong heroes

FMT:

Why Malaysian Indians are mourning the wrong heroes

The 13th Malaysia Plan provides the government with a strategic policy and space to meaningfully address the marginalisation of Malaysian Indians

From Charles Santiago

It is both painful and telling to witness thousands of young Malaysian Indians, including schoolchildren, turning up in force for the funerals of gang leaders and underworld figures.


Meanwhile, the passing of educators, scholars, or community leaders who have dedicated their lives to uplifting the Malaysian Indian community barely registers.

This is not merely a moral failing but a reflection of a nation that has, for decades, normalised the exclusion and degradation of an entire ethnic group.


For too long, Indians in Malaysia have lived under the shadow of structural neglect and state-sanctioned second-class citizenship.

There are no meaningful affirmative action policies to uplift the community.

Disparities in education, access to business capital, and government procurement opportunities are entrenched.

Derogatory terms like “keling” continue to be used without consequence. The casual branding of Indians as alcoholics, criminals, and gangsters – by the media, by policymakers, and in public discourse – has robbed generations of dignity and self-worth.


But even despair has context.

What the crowds at these funerals signal is not just misplaced loyalty. It is the scream of a community cornered, of youth who have been told, over and over again, that the system was never built for them.

When formal institutions abandon people, informal power fills the vacuum. This is what we are seeing: a loyalty born not of choice but of exclusion.

The 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP) provides the government with a strategic policy and implementation space to meaningfully address the marginalisation of Malaysian Indians.


We need to put forward a bold, community-driven framework to confront systemic exclusion and offer a real pathway to empowerment, especially for the bottom 60% (B60) of Indian households.

Policymakers could focus on four urgent areas of intervention – education reform, youth and women empowerment, SME development, and institutional accountability – and these should be prioritised as a blueprint for survival.


If embedded into 13MP and future national development agendas, these proposals could help shift the Malaysian Indian narrative from dependency to agency, from marginalisation to shared prosperity.

This is not about special treatment; it is about justice – about repairing the damage of decades of structural neglect and finally allowing Malaysian Indians to participate fully and equitably in national development.

To ignore this moment, to once again sideline the voices of a hurting, frustrated, and disillusioned community, is to risk losing another generation.

If the government truly cares about social cohesion, nation-building, and justice, then it must start by recognising where it has failed – and act decisively to correct it.

This is not a call for pity. It is a call for political will.



Charles Santiago is a political economist and a former MP.