The Sensitive Indian : We're rich enough to be Post-Materialists -

When the Seri Pristana incident irrupted, Kamalanathan the deputy education minister, rushed to the scene. He “investigated.” He held an instant press conference. He pronounced judgment. He gave a hand-out to the school to expand the canteen. He said “case closed.”

Kamala didn’t directly address the charge laid by the Indian mother of a pupil who attends the school: in Muslim-majority Malaysia, during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan, the canteen building and services were closed and Indian pupils were made to have their meal breaks in a shower room. [I’ve written about Seri Pristana here, hereand here.]

According to news reports, the education ministry laterordered the school headmaster (HM) to take one week’s leave. Also according to news reports, while the HM was on leave, he entered the school and took photos of non-Muslim children in the school.

Political opportunists zoomed in on the case. Noh Omar, the Umno chieftain in the state of Selangor, visited the school and spoke to the press. Umno is the Malay-rights political party which helms the Federal government. Seri Pristana however is in Selangor, a state helmed by the opposition alliance, Pakatan.

The Umno chieftain called for the parent to be charged with sedition, i.e. taking actions which could destabilize the nation. The Umno-controlled newspaper, Utusan, claimed the Selangor State police chief threatened to investigate those who propagate photos of the school’s temporary canteen.

The Seri Pristana incident is so typical of what we see in Malaysia: hand-outs to show government patronage and magnanimity, inviolable “Malay-rights,” and threats against those who seek to influence the national agenda.

The Seri Pristana incident is so typical of what we see in Malaysia: Kamala, a leader of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), says “it’s all a misunderstanding, we’ve solved it, let’s move on.” Then Vel Paari, MIC’s Strategic Director, says it’s not over until disciplinary action is taken against the HM.

The Seri Pristana incident is so typical of what we see in Malaysia: national leaders who are members of the ruling coalition act out of the belief that non-Malays can better themselves only by kissing the hands of Malay leaders and even garlanding them; progress not through reasoning, but through obeisance.

Enlightened Indians look at such irruptions through images such as these:

Cow-head. Home minister Hishammuddin feting cow-head toting Umno men in his ministerial office.

Hand-kissing. Kamala kissing Muhyiddin’s hand.

Garlanding. MIC garlanding Najib in Batu Caves during Thaipusam.

Bum-in-your-face gyrations by retired Malay armed forces men against Ambiga Sreenivasan, a former president of the Bar Council and currently the public face of justice in Malaysia.

Irene Fernandez. For years the state hounded Irene Fernandez of Tenaganita for her expose of dreadful conditions in refugee camps in Malaysia.

The EO6. 5 of the 6 illegally detained and interrogated members of PSM (“the EO6”) were Indians, one of them a nationally and internationally celebrated doctor who also happens to be an elected Member of Parliament. [Here is one of my articles on the EO6.]

Cynthia Gabriel. The state continues to harass Cynthia Gabriel of SUARAM for her quest to find the truth, re. Scorpene and the seemingly motive-less murder of Altantuya.

Thaipusam. The government’s collusion with the MIC, demonstrated by inaction against disruptions of public order during Thaipusam. [See my piece on Thaipusam, here.]

Enlightened Indians, after acquiring so many comforts in life, are asking “Why are there so many poor Malaysian Indians?” Enlightened Indians are moving into a post-materialist life, no longer struggling for food and shelter; they are looking instead to do good to their poor neighbours.

Enlightened Indians are noticing that the educational achievements of Malaysian Indians is dismal: according to the 2000 census, a Malaysia Indian aged 25 – 34 years is 20 % less likely than a Malay to have MCE/SPM (“O-level”) certificate. See my notice of Professor Hirschman’s findings, here.

Enlightened Indians are dismayed by the life expectancy, suicide and arrest data for Malaysian Indians:

“Indians have the lowest life expectancy amongst all major races and they  comprised the largest group of suicide victims recorded annually nationwide.

There were 21.1 suicides per 100,000 Indians, 8.6 per 100,000 Chinese and 2.6 per 100,000 Malays.

Though they form only 7.5 per cent  of the  population, a  higher  proportion of Indians were arrested for serious crime or gang­related activities.

Of the 703 suspected criminals held at the  Simpang Renggam  Rehabilitation Centre  in 2005 (as of March) under preventive detention laws, 377 or 54 per cent were Indians.”

Enlightened Indians are conscious of the low control of capital and wealth by Indians:

“More than 30 per cent of Indians do not own a house, compared to the national average of 25.2 per cent for Malays and 17.6 per cent for Chinese.

Indians collectively own only 1.5 per cent of shares in limited companies; this figure has remained stagnant for years.

Official poverty levels among Indians have remained at 1.9 per cent from 1999 to 2002, while it has decreased from 10.2 per cent to 7.3 for bumiputera and from 2.6 per cent to 1.5 per cent for the Chinese.”

Enlightened Indians know the reason there are so many poor Indians is partly structural:

The Brits kept Indians in low-paying, life-limiting jobs, under feudal structures, isolated in remote areas.

During the Japanese occupation, poor Indians had no income and no families to fall back upon.

After independence, the Brits sold their large estates to land speculators. The speculators kicked out the Indian peasant labourers, subdivided the land and sold it to smallholders – who worked the land themselves.

MIC, whose “weight” came from the hundreds of thousands of poor Indian labourers in estates, utilities and infrastructure, but was lead by urban Indians, failed to stem the tide of disenfranchisement. [Yes, I am aware of the NLFCS: in my view, a failure, like many other initiatives.]

In my last post I said Indians in Malaysia have become sensitive because of decreasing ignorance about the past. I am haunted by this description in the 1957 Federation of Malaya Census Report:

“. . . [Between 1860 and 1957], much of the 1.2 million net [Indian Migrants] appear to have been wiped out by disease, snake-bites, exhaustion and malnutrition . . .”

In this post I’ve tried to show that Malaysian Indians have become sensitive because we are post-materialists. We are less concerned about ourselves (which is why we are insulted by hand-outs). We are more concerned about the racial paths of destruction our neighbours are on.

It is no accident that many names you hear in the public square are Indian. We’re gangsters. We’re failed leaders and politicians. We’re reformers. We’re humans. We’re neighbours. In our homeland.