COMMENT | The current temple controversy is in some ways the tip of the iceberg of marginalisation issues that poor Tamil and other Indians face in Malaysia today.

Young Malaysians, and apparently most of our bureaucracy, are mostly unaware of the important role that the Indian community has played in the socio-economic development of the country.

Our Tamil, predominantly Hindu, community (and other sub-ethnic groups such as the Telegu) was the backbone of colonial Malaya’s plantation economy, entrapped in poverty whilst the profits from their labour went to the British and Malayan treasury, with the latter being a key source of the current prosperity we enjoy.