- American writer James Baldwin

COMMENT | In one way or another, political parties have failed the Indian community. Of course, the Indian community is a culturally diverse polity divided along class lines, so political parties as a shorthand to chart the course of the entire community was always a misguided effort.

While some have no qualms about self-identifying as “Indian”, many take exception at being lumped in with the general “Indian” community, preferring to self-identify along cultural and language lines.   I suppose it is part pride and part escaping the homogeneity imposed by the state but, whatever the reason, solidarity has always been a problem for the Indian community.

Talking about the Indian issue is an invitation to dive headfirst into the rabbit hole of Malaysian politics. It is a place where the Bangsa Malaysia Kool-Aid means never talking about race even though racial politics fuels the rhetoric and policies of Umno/Pakatan Harapan. It is a wonderland of Madani where the social contract is used as a sword against egalitarian values and an example of harmonious mutual co-existence.

Indian participation in DAP, for example, has a rich history. But obviously, the present disfranchisement of a certain section of the Indian community does nothing to bolster the argument that said history was sufficient mainstream dissent when it comes to Indian communal interests. Is it any wonder that talking about the “Indian” issue becomes problematic? The reality is that opposition politics is urban. Umno/Harapan knows this, so it coddles its rural voting base.

Harapan politics is supposed to be race-blind, but the reality is that it only appears race-blind because of propaganda, not substance. Folk often point to the fact that Harapan has more Indian (for example) representation, but we all know this means nothing. Whatever promises are made to the Indian community do not mean much. How exactly, if the community is not a significant voting bloc, will those who break promises be held accountable?

How exactly does a community whose political leadership, either establishment or opposition, are constantly told they are there because the votes of the Malay and Chinese effectively advocate on behalf of their community? What mainstream politics has demonstrated is that representation more often than not means appeasement and political survival.

Because politics in Malaysia is race-based and the alternative media (especially the English media) is defined by the crudest partisan expectations, issues like tokenism, appropriation, and crypto-racism, are subsumed beneath a steady diet of Perikatan National’s transgressions and socio-political red herrings.

However, to highlight Indian participation in the DAP would be disingenuous, considering that ethnic relations in this country have always pivoted on the Malay-Chinese axis. All this talk of multiculturalism is, in reality, the state of race relations between the Chinese and Malay community.

Just another proxy