Kyusuibu Honbu
BANNED
- Joined
- May 21, 2010
- Messages
- 15,305
- Reaction score
- -21
- Country
- Location
Malaysia's Indian minority -------------------------- ¶2. (SBU) Ethnic Indians constitute Malaysia's third largest ethnic group totaling nearly 8 per cent of Malaysia's 27 million people. The overwhelming majority of Malaysia's Indian population today are the descendants of Indian laborers brought to Malaysia during the British colonial period. Most Indian laborers brought to Malaysia were of Tamil origin; accordingly, the Tamil language and culture dominate Malaysia's ethnic Indian community today. Despite comprising 8 per cent of the population, Malaysia's ethnic Indian community holds only 1.2 per cent of the nation's wealth, and many of Malaysia's most hard-core poor are ethnic Indians. ¶3. (C) Since independence in 1957, the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) has remained the dominant Indian political party in Malaysia and has represented the Indian minority in the Malay-led ruling coalition, now called the National Front (BN). Since its founding in 1946, MIC has been committed to positive inter-racial cooperation and in promoting higher educational opportunities and an equitable share of Malaysia's economic wealth for ethnic Indians. MIC is currently led by its longest serving president, Samy Vellu, who has acted as MIC president since 1979. In recent years, MIC, and Samy Vellu in particular, have come under fire based over allegations of corruption and for a perceived decline in Malaysian Indian welfare. According to Embassy observations, Vellu does not enjoy high personal approval within the Indian community. Grievances grow with widening income gap ---------------------------------------- ¶4. (SBU) In recent years, as the gap between the rich and poor increased, Malaysia's ethnic Indians increasingly began criticizing the affirmative action policies ensconced in KUALA LUMP 00001684 002 OF 004 Malaysia's New Economic Policy (NEP), the application of which has focused almost exclusively on the majority Malay population. Thus, while MIC has remained an integral coalition member, many of the party's original goals remain unfulfilled and in some ways have shown negative progress. Traditional party loyalists have begun questioning the effectiveness of the party. The principle issues still facing the Indian community are adequate educational opportunities, equitable distribution of the nation's wealth, and inter-racial harmony. Vernacular Tamil schools have dwindled since Independence and decreased by nearly a third in just the last decade. Private support of traditional Indian schools has also declined as government-linked companies (GLCs) have taken over the plantations and estates that once employed the majority of Indians in the country. ¶5. (SBU) Government statistics reinforce many of the community's grievances, showing, among other things, that Indians constitute less than 5 percent of the 45,000 incoming university freshmen which annually enroll in public universities; 40 percent of criminals detained detain without trial under Malaysia's Emergency Ordinance are Indians; and Indians recorded the highest suicide rate in the country (21.1 for every 100,000) compared with Chinese (8.6) and Malays (2.6). Job opportunities in civil service for Indians saw a decline over the years with Indians holding 17.4 per cent of all civil service jobs in 1971, but only 5.12 per cent in 2005.
Indian Grievances And Racial Tensions; Gom Tries To Keep The Lid On
Hope Indian Govt. Takes necessary steps to solve this problem.
Improving trade relations with Malaysia is one way to help the Malaysian Indian community.
However, there are limits to relations with Malaysia as they are not interested in strategic relationship with India.
but don't get them on D F I or IDF.
