LETTER | There is an ongoing debate in the news portals about the need for a new party for Indians to ensure that whatever political and electoral strength the community has is optimally leveraged and politically utilised to make certain that the government of the day hears their strident calls for assistance.

I personally feel that a new party or even an NGO cannot make much headway given the present circumstances where a two-party system has emerged, possibly permanently, in which one party is multi-racial and the other Malay-centric.

Indians should not be sandwiched between these two main blocs. Indians within these coalitions can become a force to be reckoned with if they use their head and right strategy to punch above their weight, so to speak.

We need to see whether the present arrangement will benefit the Indian community before starting a new party. 

About 40 percent of PKR members are Indians, whereas the DAP  has 30 percent, and MIC as part of BN is now also in a coalition with Pakatan Harapan.

With such numbers, Indians need to show their strength to their respective party leadership and lobby for more allocations and assistance schemes from the government.

Additionally, the one-man show  Indian parties - labelled mosquito parties - should be de-registered by the ROS as they split Indian votes further. These parties are more of a nuisance now.

Indian votes have been a major factor in the West Coast states, especially in the urban multi-racial constituencies.

Indians need to know the electoral and political power of their swing votes during elections. They should not be meek in making demands.

In the recent  Selangor state election, two seats were lost in the Kuala Selangor parliamentary constituency due to disaffection with the Harapan state government since it was formed last November.

This time it was two state seats, in the next election it could be 20 seats and it will be curtains for Harapan in Selangor.

This was the obvious and strong message the Indian community gave to the Selangor administration and its menteri besar, and indirectly to the coalition government headed by  Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The government needs to realise that Indians are an asset to the nation, proven by their past sacrifices, hard work, and loyalty. They have every right to fight for their share of the economic cake.

Anwar should not give the excuse that helping the Indian community too much could invite a backlash from the Malays. Anwar is wooing the Malay community to the exclusion of others.

No prime minister since Independence has helped the Indian community like Najib Abdul Razak, who did the utmost for the Indians as he felt they had been marginalised and therefore needed poverty-eradication programmes.

No Malay leader questioned or criticised him for helping the Indians. As such, Anwar’s or his party’s excuse is flimsy.

Indians should be classified as Indians and not as non-Malays as this categorisation has deprived them of various government projects, benefits, and allocations.

Indians have been the main victims of this classification. One of the biggest handicaps is that the Indian community is not blessed with capable political leaders. The vast majority of them are self-serving, downright foolish, negative-minded or shortsighted.

This problem has trailed the community from Merdeka onwards. There has been no visionary leader who has the missionary zeal and spirit to uplift the community through examples and endeavours.

The late Tun Samy Vellu had the makings of a visionary leader but his long tenure was fraught with confronting a fractious MIC, self-interested party members, the rural-urban migration of plantation workers, his own authoritarian ways, and too many failures and disappointments put an end to whatever good he wanted to do for the community.

He found Indian problems too hot to handle.

The result was the Hindraf rally that skewered his leadership and the MIC.

Indians need to show the Hindraf spirit in politics if they are to progress under any government. We need more bold and knowledgeable leaders like former Penand deputy chief minister II P Ramasamy.

What Indians want is a fair deal. Despite all the impediments and hurdles, more than half of the community has prospered, mainly due to their own efforts and initiatives.

The rest are wallowing in poverty partly created by themselves and partly by the government.

The 2024 budget will be tabled in the next few days and Indian leaders and members in the Harapan coalition, and others such as NGOs should send a list of demands of the Indian community to the prime minister to test whether the coalition's electoral manifesto to help the community is really genuine or just a pretence to win power.

Merely giving a token amount to Mitra or a little assistance here and there is not going to satisfy the Indian community, who have every right to expect more initiatives and incentives from the government. 

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.