|
|
 |

Tara
Sosrowardoyo for TIME.
THIRD CLASS CITIZENS: many ethnic Indians toil for a pittance, as
their ancestors did, in rubber plantations.
|
A
Heritage Denied
Decades of official discrimination have turned Malaysia's ethnic Indians
into a disgruntled underclass
By anthony spaeth Bujang Valley
ALSO
Return
of the Megaprojects
Multiracial malaysia has three heritages to celebrate: Malay, Chinese
and Indian. In the Bujang Valley in northern Kedah state, Malaysia's Indian
roots are visible. An ancient kingdom existed there, of Hindu and Buddhist
beliefs, dating back to the 4th century. It was a trading and migration
port, within sailing distance of India, and it eventually became part
of Sumatra's mighty Sriwijaya Empire. Since the site was rediscovered
by explorers in the 1930s, more than 50 temple ruins have been excavated
in the valley, making it Malaysia's richest archaeological treasure trove.
But an Indian Malaysian visiting the Bujang Valley might come away feeling
demeaned rather than proudand that would be no accident. The government
has spruced up some ruins and built a museum beside them to showcase Bujang's
archaeological finds. The ochre ruins are classically Indian in design,
neat, dulland there is nothing to tell the visitor how grand the
originals may have been. The museum has Buddhist and Hindu statues behind
glasscows, Ganeshas, lingamsbut the official literature does
its best to downplay, even denigrate, the Indian impact on the region.
A board on the museum wall describes an "old Malay kingdom" in the Bujang
Valley that had "contact with various people of different cultural origins
and environments." The museum's brochure is even more explicit. It states
that maritime trade led to the "indianization" of the Bujang Valley. The
indigenous culture, it says "was eventually adulterated."
If that sounds like a wan cheer for Malaysia's Indian heritage, it's a
sentiment familiar to most of the country's 1.8 million people of Indian
descent. Affirmative action-type quotas for the Malay population, along
with a political system controlled by the Malays and Chinese, make many
Indian Malaysians feel like third-class citizens. The result is an increasingly
aggrieved population, and a timid one, that isn't very happy about its
place in society. "I'm not sure I can see a future in this country for
my children," says an Indian-Malaysian businesswoman in Kuala Lumpur who
asks not to be named. "We'll give it another few years. If things have
not improved, we'll leave for Europe."
Race is the big divide in Malaysia, as it has been ever since the watershed
race riots of 1969. In his 20 years in power, Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad has tried to uplift the Malays, who make up 55% of the 22 million
population, and guarantee them a large percentage of available business
opportunities. The second-largest group, the Chinese, were supposed to
lose their disproportionate grip on the country's economy. But it may
be the Indians who were the real losers. Most were imported a century
ago to work the rubber plantations and tin mines, and they still dominate
the bottom rungs of the social ladder. "Indians have neither the political
nor the economic leverage to break out of their vicious cycle of poverty,"
says Selvakumaran Ramachandran, an Indian-Malaysian academic who works
for the United Nations Development Program. "If their problems are not
arrested and reversed, it is almost certain they will emerge as an underclass."
Already, Indians have the lowest share of the nation's corporate wealth:
1.5%, compared to 19.4% for the Malays and 38.5% for the Chinese. Not
surprisingly, Indians claim the highest rate of suicide of any community.
Violent crime is becoming Indian turf. In 1994, 128 of the 377 murders
committed in Malaysia were by Indians. Some 15% of the Indians in the
capital are squatters. "I have a feeling," says P. Ramasamy, a political
science professor at the National University, "that if something is not
done soon, something is going to really blow."
The Indians' main problem is numerical. With only 8% of the country's
population, they don't have enough clout to alter pro-Malay business or
employment policies, or even stand up to Malay chauvinism of the sort
exhibited at the Bujang Valley museum. The Chinese community has a slew
of ambitious political leaders. The Indian community's politics are dominated
by the Malaysian Indian Congress (mic) and its leader of more than two
decades, S. Samy Vellu, who happens to be the only Indian in Mahathir's
cabinet.
When the government wants to dispense largesse to the Indian community,
it usually does so through Samy Vellu, as a recent scene at mic headquarters
demonstrated. Indian parents and their children came to hear Samy Vellu
describe a new government scheme for student loans. It was a "very special
allocation" made through the generosity of the Prime Minister and the
Education Minister, he said. To qualify, families had to earn less than
$5,300 a year. A young Indian woman in the crowd admitted that her father
made more than the stipulated amount. "Can I still apply?" she asked.
"Don't worry," Samy Vellu assured her. "Come see me afterwards and I will
make sure you can get it." Obviously impressed with the minister's magnanimity,
the crowd of 500 applauded warmly. "Whatever we get," says a senior Indian
journalist, "we can get only through the mic. That's how the system works."
One area in which Indians have prospered is the professions, particularly
medicine and law, and Indian names stud the rolls of professional societies.
Many of this group hail from white-collar families who worked in Malaysia
when it was a British colony. Yet even with that background, an Indian
Malaysian can find it difficult to become a doctor or lawyer. Local university
seats and scholarships to study overseas are all awarded by a racial quota
system. Even when someone gets a degree, discrimination is frequent. Indian
doctors, for instance, complain that they are increasingly excluded from
the lists of approved doctors whom civil servants or company employees
can use. "I wish you Americans would invadejust for a while," a
small-town Indian doctor tells a visitor. "Then I would have a fairer
chance of working in this country of ours."
So far, Indians have resigned themselves to their plight. But some rumbles
are being heard. Last October, five Malaysian men were attacked and killed
one night in the town of Kampar, 150 km north of Kuala Lumpur. Their charred
remains were found in a torched pickup truck. The police arrested 13 cattle
ranchers of Indian descent. The ranchers had complained for two years
of people poaching their cows, but apparently the local police had done
nothing to help. The 13 ranchers have yet to be tried, and poaching has
reportedly ceased in that area. The defendants are quietly regarded as
heroes among the Indian community. "Malaysia cannot afford to have about
8% of its population feel alienated," warns R.V. Navaratnam, a prominent
businessman. "Malaysian unity can be as strong only as its weakest linkwhich
is the Malaysian Indian community."
With reporting by Ken Stier/Bujang Valley
Write to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com
From Sapporo to Surabaya Home | TIME Asia Features Home
TIME Asia home
|
|