Indians may represent only 6.6 per cent of Malaysia’s 30.2 million citizens, but they are often regarded as the “kingmakers” during a general election.
However, unlike the Malay and Bumiputera (69.9 per cent) and Chinese (22.8 per cent) citizens, Indians in the country are often forgotten once the elections are over.
It was time the situation changed, said political analyst Datuk B. Anbumani.
“Indian votes have, for a long time, been regarded as Barisan Nasional’s vote bank during elections,” said Anbumani.
“We are hearing this again with some politicians already saying Indians are going to be kingmakers, including in the hotly contested Tambun parliamentary seat.”
The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) suffered one of its poorest outings in the 14th General Election, winning only two Parliament, and three state seats.
Anbumani said many Indian candidates – those from Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) – are up against each other in many constituencies, adding that such a situation “rarely occurs”.
In Sungai Siput, MIC president Tan Sri S.A. Vigneswaran, contesting under BN’s banner, will go up against PH’s S. Kesavan and PN’s Datuk Seri G. Irudianathan.
MIC deputy president Datuk Seri M. Saravanan will represent BN in Tapah. He will battle it out with PKR’s vice-president K. Saraswathy.
It’s the same in Padang Serai. BN’s representative Datuk C. Sivaraajh, who is an MIC central working committee member, faces PH’s M. Karupaiya.
Down south, BN candidate Tan Sri M. Ramasamy will contest against PH’s R. Yuneswaran in Segamat.
Anbumani noted GE15 had also become a battle to rake in Indian votes, with Malay and Chinese votes set to split.
“But this does not mean that the Indian votes are not going to be split too, as the young and older generations have different ways of seeing things,” he added.
While Indian voters in the Melaka and Johor by-elections had largely thrown their support behind BN, Anbumani said the results of the by-elections are in no way a reflection of what will be seen in GE15.
He said the older generation may vote for BN, but the younger generation of Indians may not be keen to do the same.
“They are looking for something different. They want candidates who can serve them well. They are not keen to support parties that are more interested in putting party politics ahead of the people,” he added.
“The younger ones are not interested to be part of political parties where they need to fight for branch, or division head positions. They want to be empowered, to be part of the system, as they see things from a different perspective,” he added.
He also noted that the community had generally not benefitted from government policies despite the numerous changes in administration since 2018.
“RM100 million, under the Socio-Economic Development Unit for the Indian Community (Sedic) fund, was allocated to the community when (Datuk Seri) Najib Razak was the prime minister. Pakatan Harapan disbanded Sedic and changed the fund’s name to the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra). But there was no increase in allocation.
“There is also no development on the Malaysian Indian Blueprint that was launched by the BN government in 2017. PH did not follow through with it.”
Anbumani said the blueprint was important as Indians still have a major problem in getting access to education, while social problems affecting the community were not being addressed.
“While MIC is contesting 10 seats, they are also battling in many new seats, including Bagan Serai, Kuala Langat, and Telok Intan.
“It’s not going to be easy… almost an uphill task for the party,” he added.