I am embarassed
There's an effort by a group of Malaysian Indians to get as many Indians as possible to gather at the British High Commission on Sunday to petition.... (wait for it ... and as Kavi and Gitanjali would say, teng teh teng...) H.M. the Queen of England to appoint Queen's Counsel to represent the minority Indians in Malaysia in their suit against the UK Government.
Don't take my word for it. Read about it here and here and here.
Then tell me what i'm supposed to tell my poor dead Atta (my maternal grandmother), who was an ardent supporter of the independant movement both in Malaysia and India. She's gonna come haunt me for this one, i know.
My Atta was an uneducated woman who married my grandfather at the age of 12, and left India at that tender age to come to this country. She was illiterate, but an ardent supporter of the Indian independance movement, and a great fan of Mahakavi Bharatiyar.
Bharathiyar said this:
ஆயிரம் உண்டிங்கு சாதி, எனில் அன்னியர் வந்து புகலென்ன நீதி!
We may have thousands of sects; that, however, does not justify a foreign invasion.
Answer me this - Are the Indians in this country so oppressed and so unprotected that our cause now justifies a foreign invasion?
Are Malaysian Indians so badly protected by our elected representatives, that we have no choice but to appeal to our former Masters?
And if so, surely then, we can do something about changing those elected representatives. What has happened to our young? to our professionals? to the spirit that was present in the Indians in this country before 1957? Why haven't we got an ounce of the spirit that my Atta and her contemporaries had?
Do you think that with this lot of Indians, we would have obtained our freedom in 1957? Do you think this lot deserve that hard earned independance?
Have we been so well fed and so pampered that we have no alternative but to run around asking people to rescue us? Can we as a people do nothing more than this? Can we never lift our heads and stand tall as a people? It seems as though we were given our independance, but we still believe that the colonials were better than us. Clearly colonialism is enjoying some sort of revival here.
I leave you with Bharatiyar's words:
நெஞ்சு பொறுக்குதில்லையே - இந்த
நிலைகெட்ட மனிதரை நினைந்துவிட்டால்
"கொஞ்சமோ பிரிவினைகள் - ஒரு
கோடியென் றாலது பெரிதாமோ ?
'My blood boils to think of these idiotic men! How many divisions within us, they are more than a crore!…'
(he was talking about the caste system in India, but I think its an apt description of Malaysian Indian politics).
I am ashamed and embarassed. Bangsa Malaysia, my foot!
Don't take my word for it. Read about it here and here and here.
Then tell me what i'm supposed to tell my poor dead Atta (my maternal grandmother), who was an ardent supporter of the independant movement both in Malaysia and India. She's gonna come haunt me for this one, i know.
My Atta was an uneducated woman who married my grandfather at the age of 12, and left India at that tender age to come to this country. She was illiterate, but an ardent supporter of the Indian independance movement, and a great fan of Mahakavi Bharatiyar.
Bharathiyar said this:
ஆயிரம் உண்டிங்கு சாதி, எனில் அன்னியர் வந்து புகலென்ன நீதி!
We may have thousands of sects; that, however, does not justify a foreign invasion.
Answer me this - Are the Indians in this country so oppressed and so unprotected that our cause now justifies a foreign invasion?
Are Malaysian Indians so badly protected by our elected representatives, that we have no choice but to appeal to our former Masters?
And if so, surely then, we can do something about changing those elected representatives. What has happened to our young? to our professionals? to the spirit that was present in the Indians in this country before 1957? Why haven't we got an ounce of the spirit that my Atta and her contemporaries had?
Do you think that with this lot of Indians, we would have obtained our freedom in 1957? Do you think this lot deserve that hard earned independance?
Have we been so well fed and so pampered that we have no alternative but to run around asking people to rescue us? Can we as a people do nothing more than this? Can we never lift our heads and stand tall as a people? It seems as though we were given our independance, but we still believe that the colonials were better than us. Clearly colonialism is enjoying some sort of revival here.
I leave you with Bharatiyar's words:
நெஞ்சு பொறுக்குதில்லையே - இந்த
நிலைகெட்ட மனிதரை நினைந்துவிட்டால்
"கொஞ்சமோ பிரிவினைகள் - ஒரு
கோடியென் றாலது பெரிதாமோ ?
'My blood boils to think of these idiotic men! How many divisions within us, they are more than a crore!…'
(he was talking about the caste system in India, but I think its an apt description of Malaysian Indian politics).
I am ashamed and embarassed. Bangsa Malaysia, my foot!
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