Malaysian Indian Dilemma

Today is May Day and scores of peaceful marchers demanding better living conditions and the minimum wage were picked up by police. This is exactly what happened in Klang in 1940 when Indian plantation workers, for the first time, demystifying the myth (by the British) that Tamil workers were subservient working dogs who can readily be contended by poor living conditions and cheap toddy showed their discontent to the Britishers!

This is one piece of information I learnt from this book which is somehow lost in the annals of Malayan history. Just like how the HINDRAF movement was instrumental in the eventual 2008 political tsunami, this event (1940 event, protest by Malayan workers against their colonial masters, before WW2) was the milestone in the worker's movement in the later years. As a result of high-handedness in dealing with this debacle, 9 lives were lost amongst the workers. By 1930, 20% of Indians who were in Malaya were Indian born here, and 30% of the Chinese were born here.

40 years after the publication of once-banned 'Malay Dilemma' and 10 years after the 'Chinese Dilemma', it is only logical that this publication should ensue. Being a town boy whose only exposure to the soil of the estates came when I followed a distant relative to spend a night in his house in Batang Berjuntai estate, this book was an eye-opener of sorts to the psyche of Indians in the plantation sector.

The book, at one look, seems to give the impression of being another gripe of the working class of the bygone era against the government of the day for doing just not enough. I always wondered why is it that migrant Indian population in any part of the world, except Malaysia, seem to play a keen economic and political role - be it South Africa, Uganda, Trinidad-Tobago, Surinam, USA, England or Australia. In Malaysia, for generations, Indian from estates has blown the horn of hopelessness unable to escape the clutches of poverty.

I do not know why my brother-in-law, suddenly after buying the book, passed to me to read, still crisp in its plastic wrapper! Maybe he wanted a summary before indulging in this 17-year thesis product by Janakey Raman Manickam with lots of statistics in the second half of the book. And it did not look comforting!

The first part of the book gives a very enlightening overview of the history of the migration of trading Indians to the Swarnabumi (Land of Gold, Malayan peninsula, Malai meaning hills in Tamil) with their civilization and culture from the 6th century and slowly unfolding all the events like peeling the onion skin to the birth of country called Malay(si)a to the present day. The bulk of the Indians were brought at the turn of the 19th century as indentured labourers and under the kangani system as the locals were not too keen to do the work available to develop the country then. (Hey! Sounds familiar). The living conditions of these immigrant workers became so bad that in the 30s, the ruling party in India stopped sending indentured labourers to Malaya.

The author dissects nicely, year by year, the misery of depilatory living conditions of the influx of indentured labourers. Many succumbed to communicable diseases (malaria and poor sanitation) as well as malnutrition trying to prosper their colonial master like a lapdog, more like a mongrel.

The British were masters in the policy of 'divide and rule' - not only did they succeed to segregate the races by profession; they skilfully divided the division of labour in the estates by their state of origin in India. The Telugus made good clerks, the Malayalees made good foremen and the Tamil obedient workers. The Ceylonese, who came a generation earlier seem mostly contented with staying away from the workers as they were mostly English educated, comfortable with their Government posts, moving amongst the elites. Some estates workers were indeed from Ceylon and ethnically Tamils, but they considered themselves of higher caste, another reason for further segregation. The Ceylonese community organised many community programmes to uplift their members’ well-being, religious duties and had a stadium (TPCA) to develop sports activities. Their political party were aloof on happenings of the day rather than taking stands on important issues like the Malayan Union and Independence.

In this book, there is a rundown on various Indian communities in Malay(si)a. The Chitty community who were present during the Malacca Sultanate had successfully blended with the local Malays and had taken local cultures but preserving their religion and practices at the same time. The Chettiars, the shrewd businessmen, who came independently to Malaya did a disservice to the Indian community by not investing their hard earned cash back in Malaya but rather sending it back to India. This is a stark contrast to the Chinese, who reinvested in Malaya and now have a firm grip on the country’s economy. Only in this book do we understand why the Sikhs are called Bengalis when they are not from the Bay of Bengal. Unlike most Indians who came to Malaya from their last port of embarkment of Visalipatnam, the Sikhs boarded from Calcutta in the state of Bengal.

As the years evolved, we also come to understand the various changes in the atmosphere and mood of the country from its start as a backwater country. Slowly, we can see the people demanding things from their bosses. The indentured labour system was banned by the administration in India, and the workers import stopped (Familiar again!) and it took its toll on the rubber industry. Does it not sound like the problem with the domestic maids and resistance from Indonesia?

Political awareness in Malaya (amongst Indians) mirrored the happenings in India and the fight for self-rule. In this book, we have the opportunity to see old pictures of Jawaharlal Nehru, Chandra Bose and Periyar (E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker) visiting Malaya. We also see many social movements trying to uplift the society in the same way as Periyar was doing in Tamil Nadu, resisting the caste system.

During the Japanese invasion of Malaya, many Indians in tandem with the political awareness in India and zest for Swadesh via Indian National Army under the auspices of Netaji Chandra Bose cooperated with the army from the Land of the Rising Sun. A small proportion of them also showed their allegiance to MPAJA (Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army) and MCP (Malayan Communist Party). With the return of British after the war, many frustrated firebrand Indian workers’ union leaders joined the MCP as they were unhappy with the workers' living conditions. Their wages had hardly changed from the turn of the century even though the price of rubber had increased many folds. (Same issue, different times!) The Indian unionists were considered 'troublemakers' and the British were keen to liaise with the Sultans, English educated Malay elitists and Chinese businessmen to get them to do their dirty job of fighting communist ideology from infiltrating Malaya. The Indians were in tune with the multi-ethnic coalition of Putera-AMCJA, with MCP one of its ally. After its inception, the MIC (Malayan Indian Congress) had firebrand demanding leaders in John Thivy and Budh Singh who fought for Independence. It is only after K. Ramanathan Chetty, and K.L. Devaser's presidentship did MIC become allies with UMNO and MCA.

After 1955, MIC became a predominantly Tamil-centric party (3 of the first 4 Presidents were North Indians) emphasising on mainly estate workers issues with V.T. Sambantham holding the helm. The author had blamed V.T, Sambantham as a weak leader who gave away many privileges without actually giving a fight in the coalition when the New Economic Policy was set in place.

The book later illustrates the innumerable futile failed ventures by MIC again and again and again... The failure of NUPW (National Union of Plantation Workers), NLFCS (National Land and Finance Cooperative Society) - to buy estates, Maika Holdings - to improve Indians' grip on the economy, etcetera. It also highlights the never-ending saga of red identity cards given to Malaysian born 'citizens', minimum wage issue, poverty and displacement of unskilled estate worker after the land was developed.

When the Europeans sold off their plantation, the Malaysian owners were not different than their predecessors and were happy with the status quo as long as their profits were not hampered. Many were stranded ill-equipped to face the world when Malaysian owners (read speculators) sold their properties when the price was right in the name of development. These displaced poor Indians mainly congregated in squatters areas and became statistics in police files.

The rest of the book dwells on more statistics and numbers just to drive home the pathetic state of the estate community who had once contributed immensely to the development of the country. I think the best part of the book is the Samy Vello bashing part where all his failures are highlighted piece by piece!

Same issues: 1st May 2011

If one take-home message is there in the book, it is that the central Indian dilemma is within the community itself. In spite of being the minority in the country, they find great joy in subdividing themselves to subgroup based on their origin in India and soliciting sympathy from others rather than doing anything to change their fate.

Happy Workers' Day!