Najib should show who the boss is in no uncertain terms

by Joe Fernandez

COMMENT It’s interesting that MIC President Palanivel should claim that his party will insist that an Indian Affairs Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department be placed under his party and not Hindraf Makkal Sakthi as envisaged under a recent Barisan Nasional (BN) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Hindraf Malaysia Association (Himas). Such bravado from a man who can’t even stand up to the busybody Samy Vellu, his predecessor who shamelessly offered himself as a winnable candidate for the recent 13^th General Election on May 5.

The lame duck Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) leader has no business questioning the prerogative and discretionary powers of the Prime Minister who has rightly recognised that the present Government in Putrajaya comprises Umno, the Hindraf movement and the BN component parties in Sabah and Sarawak.

The rest – MIC, MCA, Gerakan and PPP – are irrelevant.

Even the ostensibly multiracial but Chinese dominated and led Sarawak United People’s Party (Supp) has become irrelevant since the Sarawak state election of 2009 and the same fate awaits Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), United PasokMomogun KadazanDusunMurut Organisation (Upko) and the Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS). The Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) left BN on 17 Sept, 2008 in a bid to reinvent itself after PBS rejoined BN but was wiped out during the recent 13^th General Election on May 5 when it was rebuffed by the Orang Asal and the Chinese.

There’s a case here for suspending MIC’s membership in the BN over the party’s open defiance of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and bringing shame in public to him and the coalition he heads. Najib should put his foot down and show who the boss is in no uncertain terms. BN should issue a show cause letter to MIC.

The suspension will also allow the Indian Progressive Federation (IPF) and Kimma, the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress, Malaysia Makkal Sakthi Party, and other Indian-based political parties to join the ruling coalition. So far, their bid to join the BN has been stymied by the MIC veto power.

Alternatively, there’s a case for every party in BN to open up to all races and thereby the coalition can re-invent itself to match Pakatan Rakyat, the Opposition Coalition. BN is at the moment being referred to as Barisan NAZIonal and not without reasons either as it’s driven by the sick ketuanan Melayu (Malay political supremacy and dominance) mindset which is a combination of Apartheid, Nazism, Fascism, Political Islam, and the evil caste system of ancient India.

The BN rules call for unanimity on any application by a political party to join the coalition. Expulsion from the BN however only needs a simply majority.

If Palanivel wants an Indian Unit, he can start one on his own in MIC to collect the crumbs from Umno and distribute fairly among his party leaders and members.  At the moment, MIC doesn’t distribute these crumbs fairly. He should also distribute some of the crumbs to the Malays and Orang Asli who voted for his party members in the recent GE.

Again, it’s not the done thing to eye the Unit which is being set up under the BN-Hindraf Makkal Sakthi Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) forged on the eve of GE13.

Also, there remains the delicate question of the Indians not voting for the MIC during GE13 as during GE12.

MIC candidates who won their seats managed the feat with the help of the Malay-speaking  communities in Malaya – Bugis, Javanese, Minang, Acehnese, Arab Muslim, Indian Muslim and others -- and Orang Asli voters.

Where MIC lost, even Malay and Orang Asli votes were not sufficient to save them.

So, it’s a bit of a mystery why MIC wants to claim ownership of the Indian Unit and the Indian Nation in Malaysia.

The only Indians the MIC represents are the party leaders themselves in collecting the crumbs from Umno’s table after the Umnoputras have eaten more than a fair share of their fill fro the spoils of office, vomited, shat and farted.

This comes as no surprise.

MIC was originally set up, modeled on the Congress Party of India, to fight for the independence of India from British colonial rule.

Subsequently, upon British advice, both MIC and the Malayan Chinese Party (MCA) became colonial tools to carry out Resident-General Frank Swettenham’s Policy towards the Malay-speaking squatters settled on the former Thai territory in the southern half of the Kra Peninsula (i.e. Malaya): “protecting the Malays from themselves”. In the process, the MIC and MCA could ensure that the vested interests among them could protect themselves as well.

MIC and MCA were never about the people.

Hence, the rise of Dap from the PAP in Malaya and some 50 years later, the emergence of Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, both to give voice to the ordinary man in the street. Had Dap accommodated the Indians, there would have been no need for Hindraf. But the Dap was more obsessed with forming a Malay-Chinese Federal Government which would mean “to hell with the Indians, the Orang Asal and others”. So, it’s no wonder that the Pakatan Rakyat failed to seize the reins of power in Putrajaya. The popular vote failed to give it a majority of the seats in Parliament as the First Past the Post System does not take into account the former and instead roots for “the winner takes all, the loser loses all”. Here we assume that there were no differences that would alter the result based on the tally of votes as represented by Form 14 and the recount of these votes after Form 14.

Back to Swettenham, it was his belief that the Malay (generally meaning the elite) was an arrogant creature who would not hesitate to harm another even if he suffered far greater damage in the process. It was Swettenham’s belief that became British colonial policy in Malaya: “protect the Malay from himself”.

MIC and MCA also became key tools, along with Umno, to protect British interests in Malaya after the departure of the colonialists in 1957.

The failure of Umno, as in the case of MIC and MCA, has seen the rise of Pas and the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

MIC will never be able to do for the Indians what Hindraf can do as an ad hoc apolitical people’s human rights movement which brought together 30 over Indian-based NGOs and organisations in a coalition of the willing.

Hindraf Makkal Sakthi chairman P. Waythamoorthy, a human rights advocate and lawyer, is the right person to head the Indian Unit. Let’s give the devil his due!

Under the MOU with Hindraf for example, the Umno Government has pledged not to fiddle with the marks of Indian students, a criminal practice designed to deny them places in local universities. They have also pledged to stop withdrawing the recognition of foreign universities which have "too many Indian students from Malaysia". MIC has failed the Indians on both counts for fear of invoking the wrath of the Malay voters and hence losing their seats.

It’s well known that the Umno Government fiddles with public examination marks under state secrecy laws to hand out free degrees to the undeserving even in critical disciplines.  Even the deserving members of the Malay-speaking communities lose out just as the non-Malays.

This is a policy influenced by Mahathir Mohamad’s The Malay Dilemma.

The book advocated the self-serving theory that the Malays, being inbred for one, were genetically inferior and could not cope with the competition posed by others.

The Malay-speaking communities admittedly appear to have more than their fair share of certain cultural practices like incest and inbreeding.

But that’s no reason not to embrace the concept of the Brightest and Best irrespective of race, religion and gender leading us all. Any other policy would lead to the further moronification of the morons and the moronification of the Brightest and the Best.

The Umnoputras have had their day since 13 May, 1969 under the guise of looking out for the Malay-speaking communities. They should take heed of the voices being heard at the Blackout 505 rallies instead of letting loose their moneybags to woo defectors from the Pakatan Rakyat and thereby generate even more turmoil in the streets.