THE 1-MALAYSIA IN REALITY ~ Tamil Community

The Indians are upset. And they have every right to be upset. After all, have they not been neglected and marginalised for more than 50 years? I will be very surprised if they are not upset when even I am upset.But these Indians appear to be upset over the wrong reasons. They are upset because Indians are not given enough posts and positions.

They want more representatives here and more representatives there, in every council, committee and what-have-you. And they are upset not because not enough Indians are being given these posts and positions. They are upset because THEY are not being given these posts and positions. It makes you wonder whether they are fighting for their fellow Indians or for themselves. Why fight for more temples? Are there not enough temples as it is now?

Fight for more government land and government funds for expansion purposes for existing temples. After all, are not mosques being built on government land and with government money, which means it is our land and our money -- Malays, Chinese, Indians and ‘others’ included?In other words, don’t talk about quantity, talk about quality.

Why fight for more Indian schools? Some Indian schools are so dilapidated and don’t even have enough students to qualify as a school. We don’t need more schools. We need to improve the existing schools. Again, quality over quantity!Fight for the abolishment of race-based quotas in public schools, colleges and universities plus for Tamil to be part of the school curriculum as a second or third language so that Indian students can still learn Tamil if they want to.

The taxpayers are paying for the cost of public institutions of learning -- meaning you and me are paying for it. So why should only one race be allowed places in these institutions such as ITM? The Malays are not paying for these institutions. All Malaysians, non-Malays included and in particular, are paying for it. It is an open secret that the ‘other races’ are paying most of the taxes but they are denied places in public institutions of learning which depends on taxpayers to fund them.

Are posts and positions really that important? Indians have been given posts and positions since over 50 years of Merdeka. But have the lot of the Indians improved? Do these Indians holding all sorts of posts and positions really strive to improve the lot of their fellow Indians?Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad grumbled that he gave the so-called representatives of the Indian community all sorts of help. They got shares, contracts, land and whatnot.

But did it filter down to the grassroots Indians or did those at the top sapu everything for themselves?Today, the Indians might argue that MIC no longer represents the Indian community and that Mahathir should not have given all this wealth to the MIC leaders because they kept it all for themselves and never passed anything down to the people below them. Maybe, today, you say that. But, until very recently, 90% of the Indian voters voted for Barisan Nasional.

The impression the Indians gave was that they regard MIC as their legitimate representative.There are many things the Indians should fight for other than for more ‘lucrative’ posts and positions. And the fight should not just focus on getting more Indians into committees. This does not work and has been proven so for more than 50 years.The Indians are being left behind. There are as many, or probably more, poor Indians as there are Malays. But Indians do not get special preferences when buying a home, the most important and fundamental requirement before anything else.

A roof over the head is first and foremost. But a rich Malay house-buyer gets special preference because he is Malay while a poor Indian sleeps in a rented slum-house because he is Indian. Is this fair?I support the Indian cause. But I do not support what they are asking for and the way they are going about doing it. Yes, call for the end of the New Economic Policy in spite of Najib’s warning to HINDRAF to ‘not to go to far’.

It should no longer be about Malays first. It should be about poor and needy Malaysians first.And you can demand this without asking for more places in committees. It is not about posts and positions. It is about getting other non-Indian Malaysians like the Malays and Chinese to join you and to support you in the fight to improve the lot of not only the Indians but the lot of all poor and deserving Malaysians regardless of ethnicity.

Great Article from YM RPK
http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/22394/84/

Malaysians should share the common ideas for all. Malaysia for all.

lvbala.