Thursday, April 19, 2007

For the Indians, Chinese and Malays of Ijok, the making of the Indonesian Bumiputras

Every single unspent Ringgit earned by the Indonesians are remitted back home whereas the wealth of Malaysia's citizens are reinvested in the country. The Govt machinery runs on taxation income derived from its citizens but spent on the children of Indonesian immigrants who incidentally according to Police statistics account for 33% of all crime in the nation.

The real losers in this scenario are members of the Indian community. Particularly the uneducated who are deprived of the same level of educational opportunity as the children of Indonesian immigrants. And now withfree and better education, we can expect even more Indonesians to come over to Malaysia as public education in Indonesia is not cheap. With the population of Indonesians already exceeding the number of Indians in the country, one wonders if there is a hidden agenda to dilute the population mix any further.

How many "Indonesian Malaysians" are currently enjoying Bumiputra benefits? How many of them are already enjoying Govt sponsorships and aid for various reasons? The answers are a well kept secret. The MIC youth leaders were lamenting the fate of Indians in the country recently. Because of public prejudice against Indians, employers were reluctant to employ them. The police have a habit of indiscriminately arresting every Indian youth in sight every time a crime occurs and keeping them in lock up for days. As a result, the youth are reluctant to return to work, unable to explain their absence. Those who do are pressured out of employment when the reason for their absence is revealed. The number of uninvestigated deaths of Indian youth in Police lock ups around the country is rising. And the MIC is looking more disempowered by the day.

The racial polarization caused by UMNO's superiority complex is creating a stronger spirit of protectionism among the Chinese which doesn't help the fate of Indians in Malaysia. Malaysia has forgotten the contribution of its Indian citizenry. Recently, the Selangor state Govt evicted 43 Indian families who had occupied a plot of Govt land in Kuala Selangor for over 80 years. Their appeal for a stay of the eviction order was denied by the Chief Minister of Selangor who incidentally is the son of an Indonesian immigrant.

I write to appeal to you all to stop thinking of the Indian underclass as somebody else's problem. Indians are intelligent, hard working and loyal. But the level of frustration, lack of confidence and lack of entrepreneurship among them is the result of the selfishness of the Govt. With collective contribution of society, this can all change.

Nice letter from a Sri Siva in Malaysiakini about the MIC.

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