If you ask the Malays who their leaders are, they will probably name people like Muhyiddin, Anwar, Hadi, Sanusi or Mahathir. If you ask them what their party is, they will probably say Pas, Bersatu, Umno or even PKR.
If you ask a Chinese who their leader is, they would probably name Lim Guan Eng or Anthony Loke. If you ask them what their party is, they will probably answer DAP.
If you ask an Indian however, who their leader is, you will probably not get a reply. If you insist on an answer, and ask who an Indian goes to when they have a problem, they might actually give out the names of Malay leaders like Anwar or Najib. If you ask them what their party is, they might reply PKR or DAP, although in neither PKR or DAP, do Indians have a significant say.
MIC, the last party that can be said to truly represent the Indians, has never really recovered from the onslaught of the HINDRAF movement in 2007, which led to the downfall of the last Indian leader in Malaysia, the late Tun Samy Vellu , who passed away last year.
Despite bringing down Samy Vellu and MIC, however, the HINDRAF movement, for various reasons, did not replace them with a leader and party of its own.
Having neither MIC or HINDRAF to represent them, the Indians then dissipated into a number of multiracial parties like DAP and PKR to advance their political interest. Quite a number had even rallied under the personal banners of Malay leaders like Najib Razak and Anwar Ibrahim, who were seen to be sympathetic to the interest and welfare of the Indian community in Malaysia.
Today, Najib is in jail.
DAP on the other hand, just fired its most prominent Indian leader, P. Ramasamy, for reasons that are difficult for an Indian to digest.
In the 2008 elections, riding on the HINDRAF wave, the then opposition DAP, which was nearly annihilated in the 2004 election, when BN won 90.4 percent of the seat in parliament, rebounded so strongly, that for the first time in its history, it wrested Penang from Gerakan and managed to form a state government.
In honour of the Indians who “fought for themselves” through the HINDRAF movement. the DAP government in Penang, specially created the Deputy Chief Minister II post, and gave Ramasamy the position.
Today, Jagdeep Singh Deo has taken over the post, and he claims that he wants to “refresh the role” by serving all, and not just the Indian community.
Not only has DAP replaced the arguably most prominent Indian politician in Malaysia with someone that the Indians can’t really identify with, that someone (Jagdeep) has even publicly proclaimed that he doesn’t see himself as a representative of the Indian community.
As for PKR, it recently fielded a candidate that had made a racial slur against the Indians in the August 12 elections. Anwar Ibrahim, in the wake of his defeat in the August 12 elections, then decided to convert a Hindu youth to Islam.
Without getting into the quagmire of whether the actions of DAP, PKR and Anwar are justified, I will just conclude by saying that all these events are increasingly making the Indians feel that we have no one to represent us in the nation.
If all of us are genuinely trying to shed our racial consciousness and simply identify ourselves as Malaysians, for Indians to be the first race in the peninsula to give up having any race based party to represent our interest, is an honour.
If no one is really trying to shed their racial consciousness and identify themselves simply as Malaysians, for Indians to be a part of parties like DAP and PKR, where Indians don’t have a significant presence or voice, raises questions about our dignity or self-respect.
If every other race has a party of their own, it is necessary for the dignity and self-respect of the Indians to have a party of our own too.
If the Malays and Chinese are trying to show how they can represent all Malaysians through PKR and DAP respectively, Indians also need to have a party of our own to show how we can also represent all Malaysians via our own organisation.
We need a party of our own, not only to show that we too are capable of representing Malaysians, but also to have a seat at the negotiation table.
When the Malays, Chinese, Sarawakian and Sabahans sit at the table to discuss the terms for Malaysia and Malaysians, we can’t have Jagdeep Singh Deo,, Anwar or Lim Guan Eng representing our views.
We need to represent our views ourselves, and for that we need an Indian party and an Indian leader.
If MIC can rejuvenate itself and once again become the party of Indians, that is all well and fine.
However, the old race based parties like UMNO, MCA and MIC are indeed having a hard time surviving in the times that we are in.
Today might be the time for a more multiracial party to reign, so Indians might more likely need to form a multiracial party in the mold of DAP and PKR.
To do so, maybe it is time for smaller Indian parties and organizations as well as the Indian wings in other parties to come together to form a Super Indian party.
Other than give Indians a platform to represent ourselves, the creation of a super Indian party might also stabilise the volatile state of politics in the nation.
If Indians withdraw from DAP and PKR, it will allow PKR to be more Malay-centric and reduce the power of DAP.
Like it or not, PKR will have to be more Malay-centric and DAP will need to be downsized in order to bring stability to the politics in Malaysia.
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