Yes, Indians benefited from 2007 Hindraf rally, admits top MIC official

KUALA LUMPUR:

The Hindraf uprising in 2007 and the subsequent 2008 general electon in which the opposition made major strides were beneficial to Indians, a senior MIC leader agreed today.

He supported the notion put forth by DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke that the appointment of Indians to high-ranking government positions was only made possible by the opposition after the 2008 polls.

The leader, who wished to remain unnamed due to the sensitive nature of the subject, said: “It is true. There is no point in me denying that fact because everyone knows that Indians did not get appointed to high positions before the 2008 polls.

“It is also true that the ‘glass ceiling’ was broken after that and that Indians will now get these high positions because the opposition has already done it.”

He said the government was now in a situation where it had to replace an Indian with another in the civil service so as not to upset the balance or community.

But the situation in the civil service today is a far cry from that in the 1960s and 1970s.

That was a time when Indians were in many top positions and there was a sizeable Indian civil service population. From the 1970s, with a change in government policy, the number of Indians in the civil service began to shrink and Indians no longer found themselves in top positions, such as that of secretary-general or director-general or head of department.

One or two Indians were given certain high posts, but this was generally seen as tokenism.

Loke had said on Saturday that the MIC did not know Indians could hold high government posts in Malaysia before the 2008 election.

He noted that when the DAP took over Penang in 2008, it made DAP’s P Ramasamy the deputy chief minister II. In Perak, it appointed the DAP’s Tronoh assemblyman V Sivakumar speaker of the state assembly.

This was the first time Indians had been given such posts, he said.

After the Pakatan Rakyat government in Perak was deposed in March 2009, following a constitutional crisis, the BN state government that took over had to put an MIC member as the speaker.

The MIC leader who spoke to FMT put the blame for the plight of Indians before 2008 on former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“Mahathir was the prime minister then and he had his own system that didn’t seem to include appointing Indians to high ranks.”

The “political tsunami” in 2008 was attributed to a swing in voter sentiment, especially among Indians, that led to the opposition taking control of five states — Penang, Perak, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan.

The Hindu Rights Action Force, or Hindraf, rally was held in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 25, 2007, to protest alleged discriminatory policies against Indians, including the breaking of temples by the authorities.