In the process, the National Front government, in reality what its main member, UMNO, dictates. The National Front today accepts what the UMNO leaders want. They may not know what that is, but they know which side their bread is buttered. In the process, the Chinese, Indian, native leaders forget why they were elected or supported by their members because they want to remain in the cabinet at all cost, even going against their ground. So, it is rare for frequent changes in their leadership, or democracy in their election, their succession to favoured cronies by making sure the favoured successor is eliminated. This will succeed for a while, but it will work eventually against the community they represent. This has led to the Malaysian Indian Congress having had only four presidents since Tun V.T. Sambandan seized the presidency in 1954, transferring the leadership from the North Indian to the south, and the Indian community has become moribund in the years since. Today, the MIC asks all Indians to make it relevant by asking what it could do.

THERE IS A TRITE SAYING that the Indian community in Malaysia must blend with the other races if it is to survive. Trite because the party that represents the Indians here do all it can to separate the Indian community into Tamils, Malayalees, Sikhs, Bengalis, others. The Malaysian Indian Congress, which once represented the Indian community in the governing National Front coalition, has done its job badly in representing the Indian community that the People's Progressive Party – which in its previous life was the opposition and multiracial Perak Progressive Party led by the redoubtable Seenivasagam brothers, both lawyers and with the younger, D.R. Seenivasagam, the more dominant, particularly in the opposition benches in Parliament – to also represent the Indians. His death in the late 1960s lead to his elder brother, known as SP, taking over, and subsequently joined the ruling National Front, After his death, it was the vehicle for a Chinese leader at odds with the Chinese party in the National Front, the Malaysian Chinese Association. But the PPP came back into Indian hands, its president being appointed a senator tough he is elected to parliament now. He, an Indian, is a deputy minister, but the party is a pale shadow of its old self.

Mahatma Gandhi in India forced the British to hand over the government to the Indians, and that helped in the decline of the British Empire. It took 90 years – from Mangal Pandey objecting to using lard-encased bullets, which also got the Muslims to side with the Hindus, in 1857 to Mahatma Gandhi in 1947. He had the genius of hitting the establishment where it mattered, not the carrots the British threw to divert his campaign. He refined civil disobedience. He called it satyagraha, and his movement hit at the guts of the British rule of India. He realised early that the British wanted opposition limited to the non-essentials of its rule. He was clear in his mind that that was unimportant.

But this is not to say the other races are exempt from this mad rush. The Indians, through the MIC, in the National Front, do what they like, and make noises when they shouldn't, so that the MIC President can stay on in the cabinet. He has done so badly that even UMNO decided the Indians needed help, or become the worst of the lthree major races. The PPP, once in the opposition and whose leaders when it was in the oppposition took the right decision in Perak that the rioting in Kuala Lumpur during May 13 1969 was not replicated there, is largely Indian in its latest incarnation, but it is of no use. The Gerakan Rakyat Malaysa, once in the opposition, today rules Penang as it has for 36 years. It was brought in to check the excesses of the MCA in the National Front. But like the MCA and MIC, it has no policy except to retain the Chief Ministership of Penang and its president in the Federal cabinet. In Sarawak and Sabah, the parties are, almost each one of them,. beholden to the National Front.

INDIA IS STRONG BECAUSE it is backed by a strong power, the USSR (as it was) then, the US now. Indians can rail all they want in their newspapers that it is not so, but the fact is India is not in Southeast Asia these days as it was 500 years ago. One Indian high commissioner to Malaysia about ten years ago, talking of India's roie in the region, said it ended when Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498. It was an important speech for which many policymakers had attended, and they left confused. But what he said is the truth. The Tamil newspapers, almost all owned by the MIC president or his family, carries out in detail developments in Tamil Nadu, followed by attacks on his political enemies, and reports on Malaysia only as it affects the Tamils. The insular attitude makes it difficult for the Indians to be members of the larger Malaysian community. The high commission spends too much time on the affairs of the Indian community, missing the larger developments in Malaysia as a result.

But the fiction is still maintained. Pak Lah says Proton is a national icon, and would never allow majority control to go into private hands. Does it matter when government policies and actions prevent Proton from being a national icon Malaysians can be proud of? The government finds that its past policies are coming home to roost. Globalisation, which Malaysia took to its heart, is beginning to affect this country. There is the hidden agenda that Malays must be at the top, and the Chinese and Indians must be kept down. The man now turning around MAS after it was made a bankrupt by Malays said he would do so if Pak Lah would promise no interference from the government or its politicians. He has brought back into MAS an Indian who left it to join Air Asia at eight or nine times his salary when he left, for five years. But it is of no use if the end result is what happened to Proton.

In Malaysia, those expelled from Singapore did provide the intellectual framework for much of its policies, although some had occasion to regret what they did. The former prime minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, in his eighties and had a heart attack around Christmas last year, is the grandson of a Malayali policeman from Travancore who became head of security to the sultan of Kedah. Many others though came here to earn a living, fought for Indian independence, and returned to serve the Indian government on independence. Among those were N. Raghavan, a lawyer who became India's ambassador to Argentina. Dr N.K. Nair practiced medicine in Penang, fought for Indian independence, married a German, and remained in Malaysia. His son died as a UN representtive in Thailand. But they are a minority in Singapore and Malaysia. In Singapore, they are looked down upon officially. In Malaysia, they are look down upon by the Tamils, who represent the Indians in power. They cannot join the Malaysian Indian Congress, unless they forget Malayalam and adopt Tamil. But in either territory, they cannot be ignored. Once in a blue moon, someone like C.V. Devan Nair would arise to make their presence felt.

THE MINISTER OF INFORMATION, Dato' Seri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadhir, has suddenly discovered the Rukun Negara, enunciated more than 30 years ago, and promptly ignored, to give a sense of longing to the Chinese and Indians. It was the brainchild of Tun Ghazali Shafie, who was a thinker in residence in addition to the other portfolios he held. His mind is acute then as it is today, although he is in his 80s and confined to a wheel chair. He was unusual among Malaysian minister in that he read widely. But he also wore his arrogance on his sleeve. And that pushed Rukun Negara into the background, its five principles forgotten, ensuring that the New Economic Policy and Malay Dominance without the restraining influence of the Rukun Negara ensured the Malay is dominant and arrogant. Today, Rukun Negara is said to be 'the principle of life', that Malaysians must accept it. It is not the prime minister who says it but his minister of information, who has been fighting as hard to keep his job as the Prime Minister wants to replace him. But the call for Rukun Negara means nothing. It is brought from the dusty cupboard because the powers that be have decided that it is relevant. Does this mean that for 30 years, when it lay forgotten, it did not have any relevance? It is yet another sign that the National Front government flounders.

But the non-Malays, fed up their political leaders, start groups against them. This is on a small scale at the moment, but pockets of them are being formed throughout the country. In Johore, the Johore Indian Business Association (JIBA) has virtually replaced the MCA in representing the Indians. It has started small, concentrates on the petty traders, but it has got the MIC leaders in the state being more active. The Malays, especially the young, join PAS if they want a political future, and UMNO if they want to be billionaires. But those who want to be in either party join hands with the non-Malays to form an effective political grouping. They may or may not succeed, but it keeps the National Front on its toes.

In the other case, the National Front government has passed a law disallowing half the population from going to one of its court systems. The civil courts told the wife of Lance Corporal Moorthy that it cannot hear her case, said in effect could not go to the Sharia courts, therefore her husband had to be buried a Muslim. She had no standing in the matter and had to allow the religious affairs department to bury him as a Muslim. The Indians, particularly the Hindus, are up in arms at this 'gross injustice'. The Malaysian Indian Congress, which should have taken the cudgels on behalf of the wife, would rather not. The Peoples' Progressive Party would rather blame National Front politicians for bribery in local councils than get involved in this religious tug-of-war. They know fully well the people would vote the National Front in at the next election or byelection. So why should they get involved. The Chinese and those of Sarawak and Sabah do not want to get involved. So it becomes a women's issue or an Indian issue, and the others stay away.

THE DEPUTY INFORMATION MINISTER, Dato' Zainuddin Maidin, has called on Malaysians not to be racialistic, and the deputy higher education minister, Dato' Fu Ah Kiow, urged authorities not to be 'overzealous' as this 'could be misconstrued as targetting a particular group.' No Malay minister has told the authorities not to. Among the non-Malays in the National Front, only the Chinese members of the government has. Perhaps Dato' Zainuddin might tell the Malay leaders in the National Front, especially from UMNO, not to be racialist. The nude woman in the MMS videoclip is Chinese, the government now says she is not a Chinese tourist. But that must be a guess, since it has called on the woman to say she is the woman. The identity of the woman is not the issue, that she was made to do the ear squat naked is confirmed in the videoclip. The police are running hither and thither to prove it is not at fault, when it is. The government is concerned its explanation is disbelieved. So the appeal to be not racialist. But is this believed? In Malaysia, racial profiling is standard: the Indians are vicious gangsters, the Chinese are responsible for many a wrong doing. It is taken as truth when dealing with the Indian and Chinese. Yet the official word is not to profile people racially. If it had not been done, would this nude Chinese woman doing the ear squat have become serious as it has?

But that view has led to Chinese and Indians, whether foreigners or Malaysian, being treated as they are. The female nude ear squat is not limited to Chinese tourists. A few days ago, a Malay woman who protested against the treatment meted out to former deputy prime minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was stripped naked and made to do the ear squat. The government instead of investigating the incident has accused her of waiting five years before she came public. It is suggested that she is lying. As they imply the Chinese tourists, who have told newspapers about their treatment by police and immigration in China, are. But this only gets more news coverage and the issue cannot be solved. Governments the world over has forgotten that its citizens have access the internet and reading what is on it gives a different perspective to the public relations writing of the mainstream newspapers. The writers will get their dato'ships for not rocking the National Front. But these newspapers report what it would not normally. Nothing gets in these newspapers without government sanction, and so the reports are regarded by China as government- inspired. The Malaysian officials believe the same thing about China for the newspapers there. So why should not China think the same of Malaysian newspapers?

Pak Lah's instruction from Malta, where he is attending the Commonwealth summit, to get to the bottom of it is more important. The police would not investigate, or eat their words, unless instructed from above. The authorities, and the police, have rent the air with apologies, but no one has apologised to the naked woman. Neither has Dato' Seri Anwar been given an apology for what had happened to him. Dato' Seri Rahim Noor was sent to jail, that was all. Before the latest incident occured, the Bangladeshis, the Indonesians, the Indians, the Pakistanis, the Myanmarese have been manhandled by the Police. The police have also manhandled Malaysians. It has shot dead Indian pregnant women, and illtreated and killed Indians. The general attitude then was they deserved it. With this in mind, the Police went about illtreating and manhandling foreigners.

IF THERE WAS A CHANCE of Chinese tourists coming to Malaysia, the latest videoclip has made sure they will not. Pak Lah has ordered the Home Affairs Minister, Dato' Seri Azmi Khalid, to tell Chinese authorities that this will not happpen in future. Malaysia does not welcome Asian or African visitors. They are harassed at the immigration counters at the airport, although they have valid visas. If they escape that hurdle, they face harassment from the police. The 70-second videoclip that the MP, Ms Teresa Kok, produced in Parliament yesterday (24 November 2005) has put paid to any official explanation. It is now the perception that the Asian or African tourist will be badly treated, with the women stripped naked and made to do the 'ear squat'. In the light of the video clip, in fact well before yesterday, Malaysians do not believe the government explanations to the contrary. The Pak Lah administration is desperate that it is believed, for it need the Chinese tourist. There has been less than 65 per cent arrivals for the first nine months of this year compared to the last. Malaysia has all the facilties that are half- empty. The Chinese refusal to come to Malaysia is partly responsible. I have a cousin here with a valid work permit, but all he has seen Kuala Lumpur is between his work place and his flat 300 yards away. He dare not go sightseeing, even with others with work permit, because the police would harass him, and take away his money. The foreigner, unless he is Caucasian, will expect a hard time here. Most professional Indians come here en route to the United States or other Western countries. So they keep quiet about the harassment. The Indian government gets involved for political reasons, making a fuss for specific reasons. The Chinese vote with their feet, their Governments supporting them, especially when it has an edge over the foreign government. A visit by Dato' Seri Azmi Khalid would not reverse a trend caused by his underlings. Could not have Pak Lah raise the matter when he saw his Chinese counterpart in Busan, South Korea, during the APEC summit?

Pak Lah thought the Chinese would be happy to be told that without them Asia would be different. But China looks after its citizens overseas. Maybe it is done so that it is a big boy in the region. Whatever the reason, it is prepared to 'punish' a government for putting its citizens in such incidents as stripping in public. If the tourists are prostitutes, or breaks the law in the countries they visit, the Chinese government would not raise a finger to help them. But if they are harassed by officialdom, as many are in Malaysia, then it would act. The Indians do not. The Pakistanis do not. The Bangladeshis do not. The Sri Lankans do not. The countries in the region do not. So it was assumed the Chinese would not either. But it had assumed it could treat them as the local Indians and Chinese. But the 65 per cent decline in two years because of government wrongdoing will continue if Malaysia does not reform. It is more concerned with the Caucasians than Asians, especially if they are Indians and Chinese. When MAS was bleeding, it thought of hiring Caucasians of. It did not think of Malaysians, because it would have had to call in Malaysian Indians or Malaysian Chinese. Facilties are built not for the locals but for the Caucasian foreigners. God forbid, these people are not Muslims either.

Whatever the government might say, people will still not travel if they are going to be harassed in a foreign country. The foreigner, unless he is not Caucasion, is on notice that the police is on their trail if they are allowed in at the airport. The Indians were once targetted. The managing director of an IT company and others were made to squat in their under pants in the hot sun in the Brickfields police station, when police rather crudely barged into the Palm Court Condominium last year. No amount of entreaties by the Indian High Commission helped. Neither did a visit by the then foreign minister, Mr Natwar Singh, help. The police had raided the condominium with brute force. But the issue has died down. The Indians were not prepared to retaliate. A suggestion that the Indian Immigration should take retaliatory action of Malaysians, particularly the wives of senior government officials, who go to India on holidays was ignored. Both sides wanted the furore to pass, and so it was. But this evening (20 November 2005) a police car came to Palm Court condominium for a routine check, and I saw several Indians disappear as if they are trying to hide away from the law. The Indians are inerested only in government-to-government relations in Malaysia, and carry less if the Indian citizen here is in trouble for no reason of his own.

Dato' Aziz's conviction represents what is wrong with people of other races becoming Malay and what their place is in the scheme of things in Malaysia. He is neither fish nor fowl, when pushed to a corner. He thought he was buying protection by doing wrong at the politician's bidding but found out too late that his minister was more important to be in jail than he. In Malaysia, the Muslim takes preference. In the past, it would be the Malay, Chinese and then Indian. Now it lis the Malay Muslim, other Muslims, Chinese and Indian. The recent decision of the authorities to seek an English or Australian to hed MAS was taken to prevent a Chinese or Indian Malaysian to take up the job. It was no so in the past. The change came after the racial riots in 1969. From that time, as part of Malayisation, the Chinese and Indian were weeded out of top posts in civil, government service, or government-linked companies. In the New Straits Times, the editor-in- chief is criticised for bringing in Indians into top positions. The Malays have proved they can't handle the job, and the new man, politically and racially acceptable but an Indian all the same, is blamed for not giving Malays jobs. His family was probably a Muslim years before his attackers among the Malays became Muslims. But that does not matter. It is important Malays must hold all senior positions, it does not matter if they are inefficient. If a non-Malay became a Muslim to rise in his job, he will fall by the wayside as Dato' Aziz has done. The Islamic faith will not protect as it has not Dato' Aziz although he was already a Muslim.

It is so with the other parties in the Alliance. The Malayan Indian Congress was formed in 1946 to fight for Indian independence. When India did become independent the following year, the MIC president became India's ambassador to Rome and the Vatican while several committee members became the first ambassadors to other countries. It reoriented itself to Malayan independence only after the next president, a KL lawyer named K. Devasar, took office. In 1952, Malaysia ceased to be an immigrant nation, and those who had come before 30 April of that year was allowed to become Malayans. Those living in the country were allowed to become subjects of the ruler and automatically became Federal citizens. My father became a Johore subject that way. He had included my name in his citizenship as I was 13 at that time. I could use that in 1956 to get my federal citizenship. He was not an MIC member because the prevailing rules then gave preference to the North Indians as it is the Tamils today. He was a Dato' Onn supporter, partly because he knew the man, and hosted him in our house when he stood for what is now four constituencies in the 1955 federal elections. The MIC took a downturn with the third president, Tun V.T. Sambanthan, who took office in 1954, was in the Alliance team which went to London to negotiate for Malaysia's independence, and was in the cabinet on independence, but remained 20 years as MIC president till 1974, when he was forced out. The next president, Tan Sri V. Manickavasagam, in office for about five years, drew up plans to uplift the Indian community, the Blue Book, but he reasoned rightly that it had no money. He died in office, and his successor, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, in office since 1979, implements the ideas contained in the Blue Book to his benefit and to the detriment of the Indian community he leads. He is hostile to those who wrote the Blue Book. Which is why he did not have a good word for either the late S. Pathmanaban or the current deputy, Dato' S. Subramaniam. He now takes a leaf out of UMNO by not wanting his deputy, and has his own choice in this year's election. He is in the cabinet where he could ask for the Indian community to be helped. But he dare not if it means his position in it is affected. So he goes along with UMNO, and the Indian community must fend for itself. The People's Progressive Front, formed by the Seenivasagam brothers in the 1960s, and a Indian party with multiracial members was brought in to keep the Indians within the National Front. But it does not work.

We have nothing to celebrate on the 48th birthday of Malaysia. In Malaysia, the Chinese and Indians are relegated as "pendatang" (arrivals). Those who trace their background to the early days of british rule in Malaya cannot still get their citizenship while those from the Indonesian islands can get it after a year's stay here for that would increase the Malays here. In the 1931 census, the Malays in Selangor had their parents born overseas. Part of it is the British probem. They could not persuade the sultans to issue citizenship except by an involved procedure. It was only after the war, with the formation of the Federation of Malaya in 1948, that sultans could issue citizenships to those who had lived in their state for a number of years. My father became a subject of the ruler of Johore in 1952, 22 years after he had decided to live here. It was only in 1957 that he became a federal citizen, and I, who was born in Johore Bahru, became one as a result. But my father had thrown in his lot to Malaysia early on, and he was criticised by the Malaysian Indian Congress (now part of the BN) for forsaking his Indian citizenship! Now it is an obstacle course for a Chinese or an Indian to take his citizenship.

Contrast that with the Chinese and Indians. They are cut off the education mainstream, and survive on their wits. Their children are educated at their expense, and those who graduate know they have to cut their own path. The biggest employer in Malaysia – the public service, the armed forces, the police, statutory bodies and government-linked companies, amongst others – employ only Malays, the occasional non-Malay employed for decoration. So the Chinese cut their own path, survive with a panache, and all but find their place in the private sector. The Indian fares even worse than the Malay because he survives at the mercy of the MIC leader, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, and he is not interested in them unless they owe total allegiance to him and MIC.

Pak Lah (1364)   United States (636)   Straits Times (412)   Samy Vellu (224)   Putra Jaya (200)   Chief Justice (200)   Saddam Hussein (188)   Vincent Tan (164)   Civil Service (154)   Parti KeADILan (148)   Islamic State (118)   Johore Bahru (100)   Sungei Buloh (94)   Bukit Tinggi (88)   Abdul Razak (80)   Pengkalen Pasir (68)   Ting Pek (64)   Armed Forces (59)   Soviet Union (58)

Malay Dominance (58)   Yong Teck (56)   Hong Kong (56)   Human Rights (56)   Syed Hamid (54)   Puteri UMNO (52)   Islam Hadhari (52)   Royal Commission (51)   Hussein Onn (51)   Rafidah Aziz (48)   Indian Congress (48)   Open House (44)   Vision Schools (44)   Shah Alam (44)   Malay Unity (42)   Chua Jui (42)   Abdul Taib (42)   Ampang Jaya (36)   Ras Adiba (36)

Osama Bin Laden (36)   Nik Aziz Nik (20)   Ling Liong Sik (18)   Lee Kuan Yew (18)

High Court Judge (14)   Wan Azizah Wan (9)   Lim Kit Siang (9)   Megat Junid Megat (8)

Mahathir (2960)

Anwar (2399)