They want villains to hate and heroes to cheer - and they don't want explanations that do not give them that. - Thomas Sowell (Dismantling America)
COMMENT Some
people, Indians mostly, ask me, why I bother writing about Hindraf? I
realise this question points more to a particular class mindset and
political alliance allegiance rather than to any genuine interest on the
part of the persons asking the question. Hindraf's latest strategic move to field candidates
in Pakatan Rakyat-controlled areas has resulted in the usual flame war
between Hindraf and Pakatan proxies with accusations of racism and
mandore-ism as a convenient stand in for any rational discussion and of
course that P Uthayakumar has been bought over by Umno. I'll leave the
rumour-mongering to the experts. I make it a point to touch base
with my favourite status quo agitators via the Human Rights Party (HRP)
website, and I suggest that anyone interested in learning more about
the entity that supposedly speaks for ‘working class' Indians and the
issues they face should make it a point to look up this site to discover
for themselves how Hindraf and the HRP (at this point in time the two
are interchangeable) view the Malaysian political and social landscapes. There, I'm known as a "classical pseudo [multiracial] Indian" - I
assume the writer meant "classic" - "who will never be chief of Navy but
calls Hindraf racist". The fact that I never once called Hindraf
racist, in fact I defended Hindraf against such allegations in every
one of my comment pieces, escaped the writer of the piece but seeing as
how the writer chose only to publish a snippet of my comment piece and a
paltry one Malaysiakini comment against the piece, is just
further evidence of how Hindraf intentionally builds rhetorical straw
men in lieu of any rational discussion. Many Pakatan supporters
are aghast that Uthayakumar and Hindraf are choosing to exercise their
democratic right by fielding candidates in the upcoming general election
or rather are aghast that Hindraf is fielding candidates against
Pakatan, which just goes to show you that for some Pakatan supporters
democracy is a one-way street, that street being the way to Putrajaya
and the banishment of Umno. Meanwhile,
because of their lack of traction with Umno, Hindraf for whatever
reason is hoping that Pakatan-controlled areas would be more amenable to
their particular brand of politics.
This of course is amusing
because they have labelled Pakatan just as racist and vile as Umno-BN
but yet believe they stand a better chance of gaining some support from
whatever racial mix residing in those areas. And by advocating
that Indians abstain from voting ("it's an option") even if they
(Hindraf) lose, either Umno (with a proven record of systemic
discrimination) or Pakatan (which according to Hindraf is no better)
would win. So what exactly is the game plan here?
A throwback to old racial formula
However
what is missing from the polemics from both sides is the
acknowledgement of the differing political ideologies underpinning this
political and racial feud. I would argue that Hindraf is a
throwback to the old racial formula that BN continues to perpetuate.
Although Hindraf/HRP and its adherents claim to speak for all
Malaysians, a cursory glance at their propaganda organs or
representatives tells another story.
And the story focuses on
the disenfranchisement of the Indian community mixed up with constant
polemical references to the "bi-racial (1Malaysia) Malay and Chinese",
"others" who perpetuate the systemic discrimination that Indians face in
Malaysia. Those of us who are critical of the movement are
labelled as "mandores" or "elites" (if Indians) who did nothing for the
community since independence or thereabouts, or just plain racists, for
non-Indians.
This kind of slagging off is common whenever any critical discussion of Hindraf occurs. The comments section in Malaysiakini
is filled with this kind of nonsense with the term "hero" used to
describe those that Hindraf supporters have decided "did nothing" for
the Indian community when an examination of a post-colonial, Indian
community reveals a complex narrative poisoned with systemic
discrimination but also a period of vibrant growth sustained mainly by
the efforts of the community itself.
These racial taunts or an
appeal to emotions coupled with Hindraf's own ‘demands' for the Indian
community and the response they hope to get (this last bit is the
important part of the equation), is a fairly common strain of minority
groupthink found across the world. Thomas Sowell* gives a
conservative perspective of the American experience in ‘Black Rednecks
and White Liberals', the passage which I reproduce here:
"The
general orientation of white liberals has been one of 'What can we do
for them?' What blacks can do for themselves has not only been of lesser
interest, much of what blacks have in fact already done for themselves
has been overshadowed by liberal attempts to get them special
dispensations - whether affirmative action, reparations for slavery, or
other race-based benefits - even when the net effect of these has been
much less than the effects of blacks' own self-advancement."
And
let's not forget that Hindraf claims to represent ‘working class'
Indians, which is not as convenient as it first seems. If the Malay
demographic is changing because of external influences, I assure you the
same is happening to the Indian/Hindu demographic. So while
Hindraf's agenda may not be racist but rather a restatement of a
political ideology (which failed us mainly because of the corruption of
Umno and its partners) we as a nation subscribed to pre-Pakatan, this
does not mean that the movement itself is free from racist members. You
want to see the worse of Malaysians, just read the flame wars concerning
Hindraf.
So while I dismiss Hindraf's claims of a class-based
approach to the ‘Indian issue' as disingenuous since nothing in their
rhetoric or deeds backs up this claim, I don't think anyone should
dismiss their race-based approach as racist simply because the general
orientation of oppositional politics has shifted from that of a
race-based approach to a supposed class-based ethos.
So how does Pakatan deal with Hindraf?
Hindraf is getting nowhere with BN. The possible consequences of
blackmailing Pakatan could be either Hindraf does manage to get
representation in Parliament or deny Pakatan that chance, thereby
proving their political worth to BN. If the outcome is the former, how
does Hindraf intend to work with political parties which it has labelled
as racists? Depending on the outcome of the elections, in the
wet dreams of Hindraf supporters, they believe Hindraf in Parliament
could be kingmakers, but the reality is they would probably end up as
whipping boys.
The question is, if Hindraf manages to do for the
Indian community (and their best bet for the time being is the federal
reach of Umno) what MIC (and according to Hindraf, everyone else) has
failed to do, what then are the ramifications to the so-called
multiracial platform that Pakatan supporters subscribe to? Understand now, that Hindraf is speaking the same race-based language as
Umno. When Uthayakumar laments the fact that Pakatan won't give them
the seats they need even though it is less then MIC, it demonstrates
that for some, certainly for Hindraf, Pakatan is merely a stand-in for
BN. In other words for some, Pakatan speaks the same language as BN but
merely uses a different dialect.
And because the DAP has done
such a sterling job presenting itself as a multiracial party, you still
have large swathes of the non-Chinese voting population sceptical of the
inclusiveness of the DAP. Make no mistake, I think Pakatan and
its partners have been doing the best job that they can by pushing their
class-based agenda but at the end of the day all that effort has been
hampered by the malfeasances of the federal government and their own
internal bickering. And the lure of a race-based solutions to
problems is hypnotic. It makes everything easier when you can come up
with formulas that appeases various communities but would seem arbitrary
in any other context.
And for years this worked for us. For
years we got the government we deserved embroiled in our own petty
communal concerns and by the time we realised we deserved something
better, we were too deep in the rabbit hole of our own racial
preoccupations. So
how does Pakatan deal with Hindraf? The glib answer would be, hope they
aren't as influential as they seem to think they are amongst the voting
Indian population.
It's difficult to claim the moral high ground
when the reality is that nearly every issue be it education, the
economy or culture is still viewed through a racial/religious lens but
neatly camouflaged in the ‘new' multicultural/racial spin of Pakatan.
The only way to render any type of race-based philosophy obsolete is to
ensure that the class-based approach is not only done but seen to be
done and so far either because of lack of political will or being
sidetracked by the machinations of Umno or both, Pakatan has a lot more
to do in fulfilling this expectation. *Anyone familiar with the
works of Sowell would be having a good chuckle seeing as how I'm quoting
him in a piece sympathetic to class-based solutions to problems. Malaysiakini |