Opinion: The Indians are on the brink of turning its back on the unity government for good
24 Mar 2025 • 9:00 AM MYT
TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher
Image credit: Malaysia Gazette / Utusan Malaysia
The government must understand that if they don’t do anything in regards to what Zamri Vinoth had said to the Indian community, then the Indians will be forced to retract their support for the government, because if we don’t, how will we be able to look at ourselves in the mirror?
At least with the ERA FM DJ’s controversy, we can say that what happened was probably just a misunderstanding, without there being any malice or ill intention, but we will have to make ourselves dumb, deaf and blind to not deem what Zamri Vinoth said as an overt and deliberate attempt to offend us.
Zamri has even reuploaded the offending post after it was taken down by Facebook - that he has done so removes any doubt that his intention is to offend us.
We can’t even ignore what Zamri Vinoth said under the excuse that it is just the expression of a lone individual, and in a nation of 30 million plus people, we must accept that there will always be disaffected people, who will be saying something or other, that will rub us in the wrong way, and thus we should just not pay attention to what Zamri said, because if we start paying attention to what every person like Zamri says, we will not have any time to do anything else.
We can’t ignore it, because the government itself has made it impossible for us to ignore it.
When our government has punished everyone from the owners of KK Mart to the operators of ERA FM to Harith Iskandar for a far less intentional or offensive remark, to not take action against Zamri will be akin to the government saying that it is us, the Indian community, that is over reacting to what Zamri said, altough Zamri himself has done nothing to insult us or that we are somehow “lesser”, and thus we should resign ourselves to a “lesser” treatment by the goverment. What other logical explanation is there, save for that ?
Can the government really afford not to treat what Zamri said to us as insulting – what if that sets a precedent, and some other disaffected person tries to be “factual and truthful” in the way that Zamri claims that he was just being “factual and truthful”, to the other racial and religious group in the nation?
If everybody tries to assert what they believe to be “factual and truthful” about another person's belief and identity, when we all know that our identity and belief is something that is meaningful only if it is experienced, not analyzed, is akin to saying that it is ok for people who live in glass houses throw stones - no one's heart and mind is going to be enlarged no matter how many truths and facts you throw at them, but something fragile in them might break, and cause them to want to break something fragile in everyone around them too.
Urimai deputy chairman David Marshel has urged the Indian community to protest and campaign against the government if it continues to disregard hate speech and defamation by Islamic preachers,
“If they refuse to act, our time has come,” David told a press conference organised by the Global Human Rights Federation (GHRF).
I am afraid that this time, if the government does not take any action against Zamri, Indians might have no other choice but to answer David’s call, and do something to redeem our self respect.
If the government has previously communicated the view that statistically, in a nation of 30 plus million people, there will always be a few thousand people from every community like Zamri, and thus all the communities in Malaysia must learn to ignore what people like Zamri Vinoth has said, rather than expect the government to take action every time someone like Zamri says or does something, then it can expect the Indian community to just let the matter slide.
But the government cannot expect us to be the only community that accepts the offensive expressions from individuals from other communities when it doesn't expect any other community to accept it.
If it expects that from us, it will be akin to the government telling us to accept that we are somewhat “lesser” than every other community in the country.
If we are a community that has long felt great – on account of the power, wealth achievement of our race, then maybe we would have been able to fulfil the desire of the government that we do a “national service” and take one for the country, in order to preserve national harmony.
However, considering that for various reasons, we have long felt that our power, wealth and achievements are waning, to be insulted in this way and be expected to bear with it, when no one else is asked to bear with an insult that is not even half the insult that we have experienced, might just be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.
“We will take it to the streets and urge people not to vote for the current government. The Ayer Kuning by-election is approaching, followed by Johor and Melaka and what we have control over now is our vote, ” David Marshel said, to indicate what he is planning to do, if no action is forthcoming against Zamri Vinoth.
David might be the first Indian to say this, but David is unlikely going to be the last Indian to say this.
Considering the sentiment on the ground, every Indian representative and leaders will have to react in the same way as David, or risk being cast aside as being unfit to lead or represent the Indians.
The government cannot expect to take the Indians to take a step back this time around. because the Indians are feeling that we have taken so many steps back for so long, that if we were to take even one more step back, it would be akin to us admitting to ourselves that our place is permanently at the back.
If the government needs someone to bite the bullet, the Indian community is the wrong people to ask it from, at least for the time being, and definitely not in this particular case, where there is a case of a deliberate and intentional offense given to the community.
If not street protests, like David says, any inaction by the government will at least cause the the Indian community to stop supporting the government as a bloc, as a manner of preserving our self respect and dignity.
The police has received 894 reports on the Zamri. Despite that, they are saying that they need to wait for instructions from the Attorney-General's office before they act.
The government must realise this and it must think deeply about what it plans to do next.
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kt comments:
DSAI, if you do not take action against the vileness of Zamri Vinod you may yet "hear the temple bells ring"
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