JANUARY 28 — Until 2009, Thaipusam was not a public holiday in Kuala Lumpur.
During my childhood, it meant a younger me did not attend school and government driver dad took the day off as the whole family headed to Batu Caves.
He still was a taxi-driver in the evening, as money did not grow on trees. It came from fares collected, I learnt early.
I still get weirded out when friends with good intentions wish me a Happy Thaipusam.
A bit out of sync, as it is Lord Muruga’s — the Tamil Nadu deity — festival.
Devotees fast in preparation — whether to accompany the chariot, walk from Seremban to Batu Caves, or travel to Penang, or to the temple river first to perform ablutions before proceeding with or without piercings to the temple, get shaved bald, or simply prepare and serve refreshments to other devotees.
Other devotees fill the trains and buses to the temple grounds, march to the top, and hand over “approved” bags purchased from the temple committee, so the coconuts can be smashed on the floor as priests recite prayers.
All of it is for Lord Muruga, so wishing me or others seen as Hindus is misplaced. But the kindness is appreciated.
Their kindness is not universal as a segment detests the symbol of multiculturalism Lord Muruga’s giant statue represents facing the elevated stretch on the MRR2 Gombak end.
Which is where the column lands today, the umbrage over Thaipusam’s holiday status retracted in Kedah and general defensiveness on limiting fanfare around the festival.
When a community feels its fundamental rights erode constantly, it defends all inches of its presumed rights without compromise. The Malaysian Indian community’s insecurities cannot be ignored in any analysis of the situation.
Which is why Kedah Mentri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor’s retraction of the festival’s state holiday status triggered nationwide reactions.
For the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), Indian Christmas came early. Even the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) joined the chorus uninvited.
Why, you’d ask?
Since 2008, year on year, Malaysian ethnic minorities have steered further and further away from Barisan Nasional (BN), eventually ending Umno’s reign in 2018.
Today, while Umno is on the mend, MIC, MCA, PPP and Gerakan — the disgraced quartet — are still in the gutter.
Defending Thaipusam, defending yet another symbol of minorities losing their place in an Islamic storm, fits the narrative to win ethnic minorities’ votes. An attempt to draw back support to the minority corner inside BN.
It’s fairly straightforward.
Everyone in BN is bothered about it, everyone in Pakatan Harapan is bothered about it, unfortunately as usual PAS prefers its minorities to be young children — seen but not heard.
A tone-deaf PAS aside, at the same time, it’s difficult not to be cynical of the political parties' convenient interest in an “Indian” holiday.
Equally it distracts from real problems faced by Kedah’s 125,000 Indians, or six per cent of its population.
Many are from collapsed-estate ecosystems confronted by economic uncertainties long before Covid-19. Educational opportunities and pathways to careers have long been on the wish-list of social activists willing to uplift the community.
Education and jobs, not merely a day off!
And if you are unemployed, an undocumented child rejected from schools, Grab driver, FoodPanda rider, taxi driver, lorry driver, driver really, or just your garden variety gangster, what does a state-sanctioned holiday mean?
It draws parallel to their past, when in the old estate days, work was seven days a week — latex drips daily, sorry — but management ensured leave for Deepavali and Thaipusam, to keep their spirits up.
You can never thank capitalism enough for sustaining our collective humanity through such gestures.
If the point was lost, the problems of Malaysian Indians are far more serious than a holiday, notwithstanding symbolisms.
There are immediate concerns, like the requirements for study from home with Covid-19 around.
With large tracts of Indians in Kedah and elsewhere poor, the shortage of laptops/tablets with Internet connections are necessary but not forthcoming from the government. Tax exemptions do little for those far below taxable income.
Hundreds of thousands of poor Malaysian Indians have been in the gig economy — as in whatever work is available on a daily rate — long before the Internet, so Penjana protections and wage covers don’t reach them.
If symbols are more important, then maybe politicians in power would emphasise the disrespect Indians confront in government offices and dealing with law enforcement due to racial profiling.
Speak up about it unabashedly and demand for examples of action to set the tone.
To say without reservation that all Malaysians deserve respect, regardless of how it appears to their own base.
But they wouldn’t, would they?
The reason the politicians would rather not talk about fundamental problems is that the answers are not easy, and the efforts don’t make great TV or YouTube videos.
Cycles
This is not new.
The bleakness and institutional racism led firebrand Indian leaders away from the opposition struggle in the wake of 1998 Reformasi to a single-issue movement, the upliftment of Indians through Hindraf in the mid-2000s.
The verve of the November 25, 2007 Sunday showdown when tens of thousands of the simple masses arrived in Kuala Lumpur full of discontent was the game-changer. Around Kampung Baru, by KLCC and yes, Batu Caves too.
Equally important to state, MIC stayed solidly with the government of the day and regarded the protesters as troublemakers.
Tens of thousands of screams later from tear-gas, water-cannons and baton charges, MIC’s demise began.
Four months later, MIC was crushed in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah and Penang, three state governments fell to first generation Pakatan.
All the way to today’s predicament. MIC, or any of the disgraced quartet, lack the nous or principle to counter the brewing ethno-fascism.
When will the bottom give way again?
Real change
The discussion about what constitutes “forward” for a deprived minority can be lost in layers of complexities and nuances.
I’ll leave the verdict on leadership to overcome Malaysian Indian backwardness by either BN or Pakatan to readers.
Probably, I can only speak about my younger self, and my other siblings, time-travel us to the present as children, and juxtapose.
My family would have struggled to manage a study from home regimen for four with the household income we had. Even back then they let only half of us receive loaned textbooks.
The subsidisation levels of public universities now, none of us could have afforded university fees.
And even if we rose above those challenges, with the number of graduates today and the extent of invisible barriers to Malaysian Indians in both the public and private sector, what guarantees work?
These are real challenges, facing real Malaysians from depressed-income households.
I enjoy, as much as the next guy, the public bashing of MB Sanusi, but let’s be honest, he is not the kind to care much about complex or real problems. He reads little, let alone editorials from sons of disgraced leaders with fine suits.
The public surely sees through false debates about holidays and asks for real systemic changes to improve the lot for Malaysian Indians.
The six per cent would settle for unrecorded leave for Thaipusam and real plans to uplift them. Lord Muruga would approve, I’m sure.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
