Marginalization of Indians - the true story

FMT - Indians: A lost cause?

Ali Cordoba's article is full of passion and frustrations about the lost cause for the Indians.

Kaytee too has written a few posts in sympathy with the plight of most (though not all) Indian Malaysians, as follows:

(1) The Toddy Syndrome
(2) Malaysia's Economic Pariahs?

Okay, pray tell me, what's the difference between the Indians and Chinese, when both communities have been equally marginalized one way or another by UMNO policies for the last 40+years (since 1970, after May 13)?

Let's not split hairs by arguing that the Indians have been far more marginalized because if we are honest, we would remember there were none so marginalized than the 'new village' Chinese during the 1st Emergency (1948 to 1960) and the 2nd Emergency (also known as the Communist Insurgency War 1968 to 1989).

Chinese forcefully moved to new village

Chinese new village or prison?

Chinese new villagers' rationed food

Yet in general, ignoring isolated cases like multi billionaire Ananda Krishnan and well performing Indians of relatively small groups in professions like lawyers, doctors and military senior officers, etc, the Chinese have since done far better than the Indians.

Could it be due to their respective leadership? Well, in BN we have MCA and MIC, two of the original three original ethnic political parties, so tell me who has been the better representative? Wakakaka, though to be fair, MCA in its earlier years was not without merit in securing citizenships for many Chinese.

Then, could it be the relative population size, where the Indians are only 10% of Malaysia's population while the Chinese, originally at 50% (or even more, wakakaka) have now dwindled down to 28 24% or less through a combination of outward migration of Chinese and inward immigration (legal or otherwise, wakakaka) of neighbouring Muslims ('neighbouring' extends as far as Cambodia, Bangladesh, and even Pakistan)?

Perhaps the answer can't be found in Malaysia, not even with Waytha Moorthy fasting to gain acceptance of his Hindraf blueprint for Indians. Hindraf has been far too unreasonable in its quest for anyone to take it seriously or with goodwill. Take for example one of its 18-points demand, namely:

(18) A minimum of 20 Opposition members of Parliament are elected exclusively by the Indian Community to represent their interest at the highest political level and also as a Parliamentary Democracy check and balance and the same is safeguarded and entrenched into the Federal Constitution and which is to be increased proportionately with the increase in Parliamentary seats.

What kind of democracy or bullsh*t system will that be? I can only think of one word - racist!

Instead of attempting to overcome the evil that is racism, which no one would deny is prevalent in Malaysia especially the worst kind, institutionalized racism, Hindraf has instead jumped on the racism bandwagon by attempting to carve for itself and the people it claims to represent a cosy racist ghetto ...

... and I wouldn't be surprised if it expects its members to play the role of the so-called minimum 20 Opposition MPs.

Look at the DAP.

Contrary to criticisms and even abuses from jealous detractors, including the mandore-rizing big-headed one, DAP has the most number of Indian MPs and ADUNs without that preposterous Hindraf demand, more than MIC and all Indian-based parties combined could put together, and if you wish, please include PKR Indian MPs and ADUNs as well among the non-DAP group, including erstwhile PKR member-Anwar devotee, Gobala wakakaka.

Despite losing one Indian (Punjabi) ADUN sometime ago to seasonal tadpole metamorphosis, the DAP nationwide still have:

7 MPs

Karpal Singh, Professor Rama, Kula, Manogaran, Charles Santiago, Gobind Deo, John Fernandez

11 ADUNs

(in NS) S Veerapan, K Arumugum, P Gunasekaren, (in Penang) Professor Rama again, Jagdeep Singh, Tanasekharan, R Sanisvara Rayer, (in Perak) A Sivaesan, V Sivakumar. A Sivasubramaniam, (in Selangor) M Manoharan, and 

1 Senator

S Ramakrishnan

And that's why Indian leaders will succeed in DAP to the benefits of all Malaysians including Indians whilst Waytha Moorthy will end up like his brother who has been ignored for his jealous accusations of DAP Indian MPs and ADUNs being mandores and his wasteful and unproductive ethno-centric high drama.

Worse, what if the DAP Indians with their political experience and sense of confidence in their success stories participate in and dominate the Hindraf wish-for 20 MP positions?

Will Hindraf then seek an amendment to its No 18th point to specify that Indian politicians from the DAP, PKR, MIC, Gerakan, PPP and various other kutu Indian-based parties cannot participate for the 20 exclusive-to-Indian seats?

Ali Cordoba wasn't helpful to the Indian cause when he wrote: Gone are the days when the Alleycats dominated the Malaysian music charts, gone are the local Indian heroes in the local television programmes, and the innuendo continues. There’s no great Indian political leader left in the country, perhaps due to desertion of the Indian cause.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, why didn't he ask about Ananda Krishnan, easily among the top three richest men in Malaysia (at one time he was touted as the richest - maybe he still is)?

What about businessman Tony Fernandes?

Just have a look at this Wikipedia page listing well-known Malaysian Indians List of Malaysian Indians which by the way includes Dr Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim, wakakaka (though not Zambry Abdul Kadir, wakakaka again).

Two happy 'Indians', then there was one

wakakaka

If it's Indian Malaysian singers and actors Ali is after, there are tons of them including Guy Sebastian, a past winner of Australian Idol and currently a top personality in Australian entertainment industry.

Lamentably Ali Cordaba's article even posed questions like, just an example: Or is it that, with the stringent Malay-Chinese dominance, the Indians are being sidelined for good in local politics, thus affecting the community’s quest for survival in modern Malaysia?

... which straightaway (and shamefully)  demon-izes even the Chinese as politically dominating, instead of posing a positive question like: How did the Chinese do it? Surely we Indians can do the same.

As I mentioned, his article has been both passionate and expressive of frustration but unfortunately has also bought into a deplorable self-pitying victim-hood for the Indians, a state of mind not unlike a debilitating poisonous morass from which the deprived Indians, if they were to believe that's their irredeemable fate, will find difficulty climbing out of.

Once I published a post titled Hated by Indra which included extracts from a 1993 novel by Martin Booth titled ‘The Iron Tree’.

The story centred around an Irish Catholic priest in China of yonder days (1900). I came to the page which described the priest strolling along a road beside the river that flowed past Wuchow, the village he was stationed at. He saw Chinese coolies (labourers) hauling blocks of stones from a barge to the town. These were the lines I was drawn to:

The blocks were several feet square and each took two men with a substantial bamboo pole slung between their shoulders to lift it. These pairs of men struggled up the steep bank with the blocks, their breath coming in starved gasps by the time they reached the road, their horny bare feet kicking up dust as they staggered off into the town.

Pausing for some minutes, I watched the procession, wondering what life expectancy might be of these near-slaves. They could not be able to look forward to long lives and it was of no surprise to me the British had found it so easy to addict the Chinese to opium. Anyone with such an existence would want frequent release into a better world. [...]

Such was the lot of many Chinese in a China of earlier days, as would have been the lot too for many Indians in India.

But look at China and India today, bearing in mind India has been touted as the world's biggest democracy with all the attendant politically assured freedom of choice. Take just one example - their respective performance in the 2008 Olympics, which I believe had the Indian PM commenting angrily on what was wrong with India (1 gold, 2 bronze, total 3 medals, overall position 50th) when China could emerge top nation in the Games (51 gold, 21 silver, 28 bronze, total 100 medals, overall position 1st).

Yes, we need to ask why?

In my post Hated by Indra I also wrote:

I return to Martin Booth’s most observant two sentences of “They could not be able to look forward to long lives and it was of no surprise to me the British had found it so easy to addict the Chinese to opium. Anyone with such an existence would want frequent release into a better world.”

Thus to seek release into a 'better world', the deprived Chinese of yonder years went for opium, while their Indian counterparts went for toddy (and in some cases, ganja). I fear that even today some poor Indian Malaysians are still going for toddy.

Seven years ago I wrote The Toddy Syndrome where I stated:

Probably the most deprived and marginalized ethnic group in Malaysia, a land of bountiful plenty, is the Indian community. […]

The typically hard working but unskilled Indian struggles at the lower scale of employment, earns enough to live from hand to mouth day to day, has no or little after-hours amenities, has many children as a result of their sole entertainment (not unlike Chinese farmers in remote rural areas), at the end of work dashes off to the local ‘pub’ for several tin mugs of watered toddy, gets himself pissed drunk to blank out his agonizing frustration, apprehension, worries, physical/mental pain, hopelessness and anger at his-fate-decided-by-the-gods. [...]

The evil toddy ... has become the straw to hang on for many socially-drowning Indians. Its devastating effect produces the syndrome, but the disease is hopelessness in an increasing competitive world that is rapidly leaving many Indian Malaysians behind.

So Aneh, what have you done for your Indians instead of reading about Ali Cordoba questioning or suspecting even the Chinese (together with the Malays) for their stringent dominance of politics to the disadvantage of Indians.

Continuing, I wrote: Their children are born into immediate disadvantage. Their community is looked down upon. They are assigned ownership of Malaysian crimes which cannot be attributed to foreign migrant workers. They have become the debris, flotsam and garbage of Malaysian society.

Such is the unhappy lot of the chronic poor, impoverished people who would be exploited for the economic and sensual gratification of the ruling class and the rich. […]

Where was and is the Indian leadership? How did Uthayakumar, a professed Indian leader, deal with this other than to deeply offend the very people who could (or even might already) have helped. Has any senior politician from BN or Pakatan taken heed of Waytha Moorthy's self-sacrificial fasting?

As I suspect that the answer to the Indian Malaysian problems might not be found in Malaysia, let's look at India.

One only needs to read Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize winning book 'The White Tiger’ to realize the evil of class-caste exploitation and persecutions in India, the world’s [so-called] biggest democracy.

And that is precisely the problem at the heart of the Indian Malaysians' lost cause.

No society has been more affected by class oppression than Indian society, made worse by its religious sanctified caste system.

But thousands of years of religious and societal indoctrination have convinced the lower caste, despite their modern education, to meekly accept their man's (not God's) assigned positions.

I recall an Indian friend, a Dalit*, who lamented he couldn't marry the woman he loved (and who loved him too) because she was from a higher caste.

* 'untouchable' or 'pariah' in the Indian caste system, but subsequently euphemised by Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi into Harijans (children of God). But the caste refused to accept even that and called themselves Dalit, which means 'The Oppressed'.

I looked at him in shock and asked why in today’s world he and his sweetheart would even accept such nonsensical social discrimination. All he did was to moan and groan and cry out in despair that it was impossible to break free from the shackles of the Hindu caste system.

Lamentably he was a willing captive of an evil system. Of course with such an attitude, he didn't marry her.

There is no greater evil for Indians than their caste system, especially one instituted and sanctified by so-called religion.

Aeons ago, people in a society were divided into different groups according to their varna (colour), and thus was borne the caste system.

There would still be those who defend the caste system by arguing the system was established after working out the complementary needs of society, which is pure grade bull dust.

Read my 2008 post Cast not thy untouchable shadow on doctors to know why the above pro-caste spin is pure bull dust.

You would discover to your horror the sheer utter iniquity and unmitigated evil of the Indian caste system, when a young woman and her baby perished because doctors ignored their Hippocratic oaths and refused to touch-treat them for no other reason than they were Dalits.

Naturally (or coincidentally) those who originally established the caste system and those who continue to defend it were/are placed at the top as the Brahmanic class. And when such a caste system has been hereditary-based, it was/is racist.

The divisive and oppressive protocols of the caste system are deep rooted in the Indian psyche, as was in the case of my Dalit matey, more so when it has been supported strongly by religious figures who even politicized it, for example (a quote): Swami Vivekenanda (1863–1902) ... argued that the revitalization of India could only occur if people returned to the Aryan virtues found in Vedic texts. Attributing Aryans with distinct physiological attributes, he strongly favoured the maintenance of racial and caste divisions.

Holy sacred bull dust!

Closer at home, in 2006 the disgraceful apartheid-like consciousness nurtured by the Indian caste racism was exposed in 2006 in an article by Malaysian veteran journalist Baradan Kuppusamy writing in Malaysiakini.

He revealed how MIC's internal party manoeuvrings were governed by caste during its 2006 party election campaign and highlighted the tragic case of (the late) MG Pandithan, then president of the Indian Progressive Front (IPF), but who was formerly from MIC.

What was sad had been the ugly business of the caste system discriminating against Pandithan because he was from the lowest caste, the Dalit.

Pandithan

Though he was ousted from MIC, his influence in the Indian community was so strong that a stream of MIC brass trooped in to visit him when he was hospitalized - separately of course, wakakaka, because few in MIC, especially those from the so-called higher caste, liked to be seen visiting ... gasp ... an 'untouchable' or 'pariah' which if we remember, was what a Dalit was originally called.

His visitors included his mortal enemy Samy Vellu, Palanivel (then Samy’s protégé), and naturally the (then) beneficiary of Pandithan's anti-Samy Vellu campaigning, Subramaniam Sinniah (or S Subramaniam).

But the sad part of all was while Pandithan was helping to get votes for Subramaniam, the latter was trying to put some distance between them.

Baradan Kuppusamy attributed the seemingly strange behaviour of Subramaniam to the MIC consciousness of caste. Upper caste MIC members would react badly if Subramaniam consorted with Pandithan, a Dalit.

Upper caste, my bloody foot. Those MIC leaders were no more than a bunch of pariahs, and I don’t mean that word in a caste sense. They were just plain @rse-h*les.

Naturally Samy Vellu’s Tamil Nesan exploited this disgraceful caste discrimination by reporting that a Subramaniam victory would result in Pandithan, a Dalit, becoming Subramaniam’s successor as MIC president.

Baradan said Subramaniam was pissed off with the fabrication, and unfortunately for him (or maybe deservedly because of his lack of moral courage) he lost some votes because of that.

S Subramaniam
is his political career now a closed chapter?

From this recollection, please tell me what sparkling leadership could the marginalized Indians ever expect from such crass caste-conscious politicians?

And perhaps from this, we are just beginning to obtain a nasty glimpse of the why's, how's and what's that has resulted in the abysmal lack of advancement of a large sector of the Indian community in the last 50-ish years, while their non-Malay companions, the Chinese Malaysian, have in general managed to stay ahead of them.

Perhaps Ali Cordoba should have borne in mind the Indian subconscious, a psyche internalized by caste indoctrination for thousands of years, when he decided to write on the issue of skin colour, as follows:

... the Indian woman ..... added that she was not working in a sane or fair environment, where some of her colleagues would at times behave like bullies or show disdain for her colour and creed.

It was never safe for an Indian, man or woman, she added, to hold a job in Malaysia because of the ostracism against Indians and people of her pigmentation, which she would insist included the Africans and even other Muslims who are not Malays.

As mentioned, Ali Cordoba needn't look elsewhere or any further than the 3000-year old Rig Veda to know who first discriminated against some Indians because of their pigmentation, and who had imbued them deeply with a crushing caste-class conscious cringe about the colour of their skin and the fate of their births, specifically:

Rig Veda III.34.9 - He gained possession of the Sun and Horses, Indra obtained the Cow who feedeth many. Treasure of gold he won; he smote the Dasyus [dark skinned people], and gave protection to the Aryan color;

and

Rig Veda IX.73.5 - Blowing away with supernatural might from earth and from the heavens the swarthy skin which Indra hates.

Indra who hates swarthy (dark) skins

I opine the Indian caste system with all its prejudices, racism and consequential oppression prevents or doesn't encourage true leadership, philanthropy or compassion for the poor and highly marginalized Indians, hence the community's marginalized predicament as compared to, say, the Chinese.

I've used the word 'sad' more than a few times in this post to describe my feelings about the wretched and oppressive caste system, but surely the most sad of all must be that many Indians who, like my Dalit matey, have been and are willing captives to an ancient evil that discriminates against them for no other reason than the accident of their births.

Thus, in my opinion, seeking remedy from Indian-based political parties won't be the solution. To address their multi-millennium-old problems, the Indians need a multiracial party like the DAP or the PKR (though Nallakaruppan and Gobalakrishnan won't agree to the latter, wakakaka).

But look, if the Indians don't like Uthayakumar's mandore-parties, namely the DAP and PKR, why not ask Dr Mahathir or Anwar Ibrahim for help? Afterall, Wikipedia categorizes both of them as famous Indian Malaysians, so remind them of this, wakakaka.

Once Brahmin brothers (a la Kaurava or Pandava, wakakaka)
but what now? Osiris and Seth, wakakaka again

And being Muslims I am sure they wouldn't and shouldn't be concerned about caste, though alas (or Allah swt) I have come across a Mauritius Indian Muslim who boasted to me he's a Brahmin and that his Dalit boss dared not look at him directly in the face.

Well ........ Millions and millions of Indians embraced Islam in order to liberate their caste-oppressed lives and I had this haughty hubristic hifalutin (so-called) Muslim telling me what a proud Brahmin he (then) was.

Wasn't that pure testimony to the pervading insidiousness of the Indian caste system?