Malaysia is one of South East Asia’s most ethnically diverse nations with a mix of mainly Malay, Chinese and Indian races. But achieving harmony between them has not been easy. The Chinese have long enjoyed financial superiority through their business acumen. While the Malays have been helped through affirmative action programmes. But the third major ethnic grouping – the Indians – say they’ve missed out on just about everything. Jennifer Lee investigates.
(Kuala Lumpur)
One of the original "Asian Tigers," Malaysia roared into the 21st century hell bent on developing and modernizing an expanding economy.
(Chinatown)
Chinese entrepreneurs led the race, today controlling some 40% of the country’s economy. The Malays, who had been falling behind, are now beginning to catch up - thanks to the government’s "Bumiputra" program - affirmative action policies designed to give more opportunities to native Malays, the so-called "sons of the soil."
Abdul K.S. Fadzir, Malaysian Minister of Culture and Tourism says: "Government will have certain allocations, special allocations and so on, to help the Malays who are the more backward economically. And special loan schemes and things like that. So the Chinese do not mind. You can help the Malays because you can understand because in the long term, there should be more parity between the races. If one race is very backward and the others is very advanced, that’s very dangerous in long-term Malaysian security."
(Indian town)
But security could still be at risk. In the rush to attain parity between its two main racial groups, Malaysia seems to have left behind its third – the Indians a group that represents less than 10-percent of the country’s population yet makes up nearly 15% of its juvenile delinquents, more than 20-percent of its domestic violence cases, and more than 40-percent of its beggars.
Siman Shalam, Resident, Kompong Gandhi squatter settlement says: "When you open a newspaper, you look at job ads. You can see at the end point, they will put there, “preferable Chinese, Chinese-speaking, or preferable Malays.” Preferable Indians are very less. Not only to say very less, you can’t fine one!"
Jennifer Lee: Nobody wants to hire an Indian.
Siman Shalam: "Exactly."
(Squatter village)
Siman Shalam lives in a squatter area on the outskirts of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, a shanty town that is home to more than 350 other Indian families. Most come from the countryside, where they had been working on rubber plantations since the late 19th century, when British colonialists shipped them here as indentured labourers.
In the last few decades of economic growth, however, many plantations were cleared for less labour-intensive oil palms, as well as shopping malls and housing estates. The displaced workers and their families wound up in squatter settlements such as this, one among 36 others scattered on the fringes of Malaysia’s cities.
(Indians recycling garbage)
Unskilled and uneducated, they survive on manual, low-paying work, often working overtime or even two jobs to scrape together a living.
(Woman and brother cleaning)
Kavita Vello works twelve hours a day, six days a week at a nearby factory. Her mother, a cleaner, works even harder. Together, with her younger brother, the three earn less than 500 us dollars a month - an amount that barely feeds this family of six, which includes two handicapped siblings.
Yet, despite their neediness, Kavita and other Indian families are not eligible for many of the government-sponsored affirmative action programs reserved only for Malays.
Kavita Vello, a resident of Kompong Gandhi squatter settlement says: "The government helps the Malays more than the Indians, in education and in funds. So we find it difficult to compete with them, even for jobs. The Malays are given better privileges then us, because of the language they speak. They get more privileges in school than the other races."
In March 2001, violent clashes broke out here between Indian and Malay youths. The fighting – triggered by a misunderstanding – lasted several days, leaving six dead and more than 100 injured. The clashes signalled growing racial tensions between the two groups. But, more than that, they highlighted the level of angry despair within parts of the Indian community.
(Professor Ramasamy)
P. Ramasamy – one of the few Indian professors at the Malaysian national university - says it’s a sentiment that extends beyond the poor and unemployed.
Prof. P. Ramasamy, Social Sciences Department, Malaysian National University says: "What I think concerns Indians and other deprived communities is state racism – institutionalised racism in the form of what they would call it, \'Bumiputraism,\'where special rights are given to the Malays. Malays are given a head start in certain sectors. Public sectors is under the domination of Malays. Departmental heads are Malays. So you find this so-called special rights and kind of affirmative action policies that was introduced during the new economic period, actually has served to the detriment of other communities, the non-Malay communities. “
Samy Vellu, President, Malaysian Indian Congress says: "Opportunity in this country is open to all capable people. You don’t go and ask for a job based on a race. You go and ask for a job on your capability. Anybody who has got the capability, who has got the right education, they all get jobs – whether he is a Malay, a Chinese or an Indian."
(Samy Vellu greeting Indians)
Samy vellu is one of the highest-ranking Indian politicians in Malaysia. He is the minister of works and the head of the Malaysian Indian Congress, a political party launched in the mid 60s to represent the interests of the Indian minority. Today, backed by government funding, the m-i-c also provides schools and job training for mainly Indian youths.
Samy Vellu says: "They have to catch up with the other Malaysians. So now actually, the catching up exercise is going on. And I’m sure that within the next seven or eight years, we will be on a par with the other races, in education, in employment and in other stature."
"You see, we don’t work on the demolition of the policy that has been established by the government. We ask the government to provide more opportunities for the Indians. Because in a multi-racial society, we cannot ask somebody, ‘can you stop that and try to help me out?’ 1944 We should say you enlarge the plan and give all of us an opportunity to come up."
Abdul K.S. Fadzir says: "There is an income disparity and unfortunately, it goes along racial lines. That’s no good in the long term. So the government has a lot of policies to close this gap. But here it is not by taking from the rich and giving to the poor, but by expanding the economic cake and distributing it to the less developed race. So that’s how we’re going to do it."
(Yayasan Strategik office)
One of the ways it is trying to expand the economic cake is with the Yayasan Social Strategy Foundation, a think-tank that, among other initiatives, develops assistance programs for poor, Indian youths. The government has given to the foundation more than 700,000 u.s. dollars a year since it was set up two years ago.
Dr. Denison Jayasooria, Yayasan Social Strategy Foundation says: “What we are seeing is a possible shift and the possibility of change. This is where the younger generation would have to take on the opportunities available for skilled training, to move on through, step by step, industrial training programs that are being made available. These young people are not totally hopeless, helpless and washout. If sufficient intervention programs are addressed specifically to them, I believe the problems can be arrested over a period of time. “
(Squatters)
The government has also vowed to move all squatters into subsidized housing by 2005 and double Indian corporate ownership by the end of the decade. That may translate to a mere three-percent… but, the fact that such race-based initiatives no longer target only Malays… the promise alone marks a monumental breakthrough.
(Submitted on 29th September 2003)
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