I am not an Indian!

Those who know me personally also know that while I am proud of my Malayalee heritage, I will never agree that I am an Indian. I am a Malayalee Malaysian; not an Indian Malaysian! To me, Indian-ness is a nationality and not an ethnicity.

That is the same reason and logic for Hannah Yeoh and Ram to claim their child as Anak Malaysia. I claim that I am only a Bangsa Malaysian and nothing else for a nationality; I was born in Malaya before Merdeka and therefore hold two forms of citizenship rights. I have argued in this column before that nevertheless, all human beings have five layers of identities that define who they are! But, being ‘Indian\’ is surely not one of mine!

Indian-ness is only a nationality given birth in 1947. That is, except for the so-called Red Indians, who are \”original natives of the Americas\”. In fact, it is said, if one goes to India, one cannot even find any \”Indian\”; they are all of different ethnicity with different religions and from different language groups – at least 14 major ones with more than one million each!

Maybe their only real common heritage is their Sanskrit and Urdu roots of all their languages and traditional Hinduism as a civilization! Indians only exist outside India vide their passports and therefore their nationality; which is a very modern creation!

Premised on this, I registered all my five children after the ethnicity of their father… which is Malayalee! That definition is based on the Registration of Births and Deaths laws of Malaysia. My wife is an American national of German ethnicity.

MIC\’s closed-eye worldview

So, if the Department of Registration had its say, it may even have called our children ‘Eurasians,\’ if they had been forced to select their ethnicity. But, I do not believe in concept of ‘races;\’ the only race category in my world is the human race! And, maybe now ‘the Amazing Race\’ of TV fame!

Therefore, I do not know what MIC means by its statement that no other party can represent the so-called Indians of Malaysia! It is obviously wrong! Maybe the MIC\’s is only a partisan political statement meant to refer to the closed-eye worldview of the BN.

It means that no other party will or can be admitted into the BN! What about IPF, which has been part and parcel of BN for some time now? What about Hindraf, for example? Is the Human Rights Party not another Indian party? Maybe the MIC needs to do some soul searching to cleanse itself of the ghost of its heritage. John Thivy, the founding leader of MIC was not only a Christian, but also a Tamil!

Maybe at the time of the formation of the MIC, it was fashionable to follow the Indian nationalist parties, and maybe some of them were even involved in Malaya, but after half-a-century of our independence, surely we are free of those ideological and mental shackles.

Therefore, while I can understand the obvious identification and motivation to link and collaborate with the Indian movement for independence, surely we are two countries and most so-called ‘Indian Malaysians\’ today are Anak Bangsa Malaysia.

But, the more important and pertinent question is why, after half-a-century of independence, we have not served the needs of the real poor \”brother and sister Indians\”, whether they are called rubber plantation-based Tamils or Telugus?

There were 40,000 of them (one of the break-point reasons for Hindraf\’s groundswell move) without ICs and birth certificates. The real question to be asked is why is MIC blind to these basic and fundamental issues related to their human rights; when even the late PP Narayanan was already a civil society rights fighter through unionisation?

Please do not get me wrong. My father was one of the founder members of the MIC in Kedah; and I believe one of the original four! Nevertheless, I have always stayed clear of MIC and would never want to ever be associated with it. Only thrice in my three score years of life have I come even close to serious dialogue with the party!

The first was when a former parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) asked me to join the MIC, in the presence of two others of similar national heritage from the Malaysians Industrial Development Authority. I replied that I would and could when MIC conducted its AGMs in Malay! He thought I was arrogant and never raised the subject with me again but complained to my father about me!

The second was when a Malaysian Indian Chamber of Commerce president asked me to brainstorm with about 10 of his exco members about the role, position and predicament of Indians in Malaysia and how to argue the case for ‘Indians\’ under the 7 ^th Malaysia Plan.

I agreed on condition that I meet no MIC leader in the process and my contributions are private. I then worked at Miti. I made a simple argument that they should simply ask for a target ownership of three percent of all assets and share of Malaysian enterprises and spread this wealth among all Indian Malaysians fairly.

Actually it was the same \”Growth with Equity Model\” or GEM argument of the NEP, but applied to those of Indian heritage. I am not sure what really happened with the idea.

Not sure the audience even understood!

The third and final one was when my friend, Denison Jayasooria pleaded with me and a colleague that we talk about the Malaysia K-Economy and what could be done for Indians under the 9 ^th Malaysia Plan submissions. Again my condition was that this was the only and last ever input I would give.

We did our presentation but I am not sure the audience even understood what we said! Our argument was simple and clear; English will define the language of science and technology and ICT was the medium of the same for future value innovation.

Malaysians of Indian heritage should take care not to be left behind! No society in the world can have about seven to eight percent of ethnic presence and become marginalised!

Today, the world is flat. No one needs handouts if they are willing to compete! Some Malaysians of Indian heritage are left behind and they need help. I am not convinced that studying the Tamil language will guarantee them a future.

However, I do know that their command of English and their computer manipulations skills and knowledge of science and mathematics will define their capabilities and value creation potential of the future. All Malaysians of Indian heritage need to learn real entrepreneurship too!

The monolith called MIC is today irrelevant and insignificant for those of us who know how to help ourselves! MIC is needed only for the dependent few who have not been helped to learn how to fish and are only given a fish a day!

But then MIC in its current format and mode is thriving on such dependency and why would it kill the goose that gives it sustenance and livelihood! That is the Indian dilemma today. But, who then are these Indian Malaysians with needs? I think the vast majority are not the Malayalees!

Therefore having two or five representative ministers is not the solution; but we need to ask, what is the real problem? Mr Prime Minister, you single-handedly can solve all ‘Indian problems\’. This only requires a political agenda of being Malaysian first, Muslim second and Rhiaunese third; never otherwise!

May God bless Malaysia!