I refer to the Malaysiakini report Q&A: Anwar did not return the love .

The Q&A with Samy Vellu was about the problems he was facing in the cabinet and the many difficulties the Indian community has to endure because of his inability to solve the numerous problems the community has to put up with. These range from anything like education to jobs, business, housing, loans, scholarships and a whole host of difficulties placed to obstruct any progress at all for the Indians. This has always been the case though Samy Vellu never admitted it in the past.

Only after losing his seat in Parliament is he barking, threatening to bite the very people he was in cahoots with for more than two decades. He was treated second-class in the cabinet, he had no power, not equal even to the least of the Malay ministers and yet he accepted a situation like that as the sole representative of the Indian community. He allowed the Indians to be insulted and sidelined for so long pretending to be its champion while the community was losing its ground and whatever little it had. So what is there now for him and the MIC?

To regain the trust and confidence of the Indian community as in the past is well nigh impossible. Never again will the Indian community believe in Umno and its racist domination of the non- Malays in this country. Going by recent developments and utterances by prominent Malays, it appears that Malays are being asked to reject the notion of accepting the non-Malay citizens as equals in this country after fifty years. Samy Vellu was made to accept this in the cabinet without the knowledge of the Indians as a whole. No man worth his salt and dignity would want to be anything less than an equal with all other citizens of any country let alone with being ministers in Parliament.

Samy Vellu is blaming the delivery system, the civil service, for not giving to the Indians what the cabinet had decided. If so, what did he do about it? Wasn’t he the most senior member in the cabinet with its ‘power-sharing’ concept in the running of the government? Why did he not raise this matter while he was still a member of Parliament? The Pubic Services Department and all other statutory bodies that employ people are solely run by Malay civil servants who are obviously biased against non-Malays. He should have demanded that non-Malay civil servants or representatives from the various communities should also be sitting on the appointment boards and various other committees that dispense public funds for the upliftment of all Malaysians. Surely, the civil service must reflect the racial composition of the cosmopolitan nature of our country and thus not pander to one ethnic community oat the expense of all other communities in recruiting officers for the civil service.

Now that the MIC has a minister for human resources, it’s incumbent upon him to raise this matter as soon as possible so that the problems of the delivery system that Samy Vellu is complaining about doesn’t happen to the MIC leader in the new cabinet. Failing this, it will be like Nero (MIC) fiddling while Rome (the Indian community’s hearts) burns until the next election. They lost eighteen out of the twenty eight seats they contested. In the next round they will go the way Gerakan has gone.

Samy Vellu has threatened to take his problems abroad if the present government fails to address the many grievances of the Indian community soon. One wonders why after so many years in the cabinet, only now he is thinking of asking other countries to help out with the predicament the Indians find themselves in. The Barisan government has successfully institutionalised the place for the Indians to be in come what may. Mere threats are not going to help.

The Hindraf 5 are languishing in prison for peacefully presenting their views on this matter. So what on earth is Samy Vellu talking about? Which other countries are going to help him render assistance to the Indian community here? He should first do whatever is possible within the country and the Barisan. If the Umno leaders are not willing to help out in uplifting the community, he should order his men to leave the government and join other multi-racial parties where there are many good leaders who are promising fair treatment to all the communities who call Malaysia their home.

Without MCA and MIC support, Umno will collapse. The remedy is in our hands before going elsewhere for help. So come on Samy Vellu - take the bulls by their horns and show your community that you can still deliver despite being booted out of Sungei Siput.