Indians missing

Whoever we are, we always have 'race' in mind, thus it's not only the Melayu who have been suffering anxiety about the survival of their race.

Mind, one having 'race' in mind does NOT mean one is racist. It's the natural outcome of us bring brought up in our environment where we have been fed a daily fare of race, racial issues, racial quota, racial colours, racial this or that.

It's not unlike you being fed a daily meal of petai-sambal-goreng - you know what happens when you speak up or pee in the public toilets, wakakaka.

Take for example, the post Sarawak state elections topic: when the state's Chinese purportedly returned to the fold of SUPP - more by default thanks to PKR sabotaging the DAP a la 'Dog in the Manger' * - many (presumably Chinese) asked why Adenan Satem (the late) did not appoint a Chinese as DCM.

* in case you don't know what's 'Dog in a Manger' I'll tell you the story in another post but at this stage, suffice to describe it as PKR 'ch'au sim' or PKR type of jealousy, wakakaka.

In reality, why the late CM then did NOT appoint a Chinese as DCM was NOT that important; what was far more important was when he would/could make the UEC officially recognised in the state.

But alas, the former question was deemed by many state Chinese as far more important or relevant to them (arseholes) than a mere UEC.

A similar example could be seen in Malaysiakini's report Ambiga: What about Indian representation in top Harapan line-up?, an extract of which follows:

Prominent lawyer and human rights advocate Ambiga Sreenevasan could not help but to lament the lack of Indian representation in the Pakatan Harapan line-up.

Her observation came in response to reports that Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad is wooing Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia (PHM) chief P Waythamoorthy as well as former MIC president G Palanivel's supporters to work on possible collaboration.

"Well, I suppose he's opening up channels of communication. I personally think it is important to engage with the Indian community.

"When you look at the Harapan line up, there's no Indian vice-president. To me, how do you go to the ground with that?

"If Harapan is serious about the Indian vote, they must show it in the line-up. For me, that is more important," she told reporters in Bangi today.

Ambiga was the guest of honour at an event celebrating former Bangi estate workers from 24 families who had received free homes earlier this year.

While admitting the reported meetings between Mahathir and the Indian groups were a good step, Ambiga again stressed this should be reflected in Harapan's top leadership.

"For me, putting just M Kulasegaran as treasurer is tokenism.

"I did communicate that to my friends in Harapan, (but) I haven't seen any change yet.

"So unless they move (quickly on the matter), because the election is around the corner, they don't have much time"

Even our most vaunted Ambiga is not immune from our favourite past-time for as I have said, we eat sambal-petai-goreng everyday, wakakaka.

Look, my dear, in the Selangor state exco, please tell me how many PKR Indian ADUN has MB Azmin Ali appointed as exco members? What happened to Xavier Kumar who was exco member during the 2008-13 term?

And PKR dares call itself a multiracial party! Isn't PKR fighting tooth and nail to retain the PAS exco members?

The only Indian exco member in the Selangor DUN comes from the so-called Chinese DAP.

In mid 2012 I wrote about the NIAT demand for a post GE-13 Malaysia. NIAT, BTW, was (is?) 'The National Indian Rights Action Team' (NIAT) which demanded an Indian Malaysian DPM. 

Additionally, NIAT then wanted the 2013 government to appoint within the first 100 days in office 3 Indian Malaysian cabinet ministers and 4 deputy ministers, most of whom would be elected representatives, while the rest are picked from NGOs and appointed to the cabinet.

Ambitious and fantastic. Whether the NGO was realistic would be another question.

In addition, the proposed line-up calls for Indian Malaysian deputy chief ministers in Selangor, Perak, Penang and Negri Sembilan, assuming that the states would all be ruled by the BN.

Well, I have to admit Penang despite being a non-BN state obeyed NIAT tremblingly, but alas, Selangor MB Azmin Ali (and Khalid Ibrahim) couldn't be bothered.

Maybe it was because Indians were not popular in Selangor - ask Xavier Kumar (ousted from exco in 2013 term), Sivarasa Rasiah (chewed up by HRH - ouch) and Manickavasagam (suspended by PKR recently), wakakaka.

Manickavasagam

Oh, NIAT's inclusion of Indian NGOs or NGOs as a source for ministerial material meant NIAT had no confidence in MIC or any BN party with Indian candidates, like wakakaka PPP or more wakakaka, Gerakan, winning in any federal constituency.

At that time, NIAT published a 42-page booklet which asserted that the marginalisation of Indian Malaysians was due to under-representation in government.

That statement has been the perennial sad story of Indian Malaysians, where indeed Indian under representation in government is true but NOT because of the small numbers of Indian ministers or that the DPM is not an Indian, but more because of the inability or reluctance of those Indian ministers to speak up for the fair interests of ordinary Indian Malaysians.

Thus, increasing the number of Indian ministers per se, via front or back door, won't help those poor Indians at all.

But alas, when it comes to 'race', it's not just Uthayakumar, Waythamoorthy or NIAT, even our dear Ambiga has been worried.

by the by, 'roti' is a word of Indian origin