Blog

‘Some people think that as soon as you plant a tree, it must bear fruit. We must allow it to grow a bit.’ – Tunku Abdul Rahman in reference to the policies implemented in Malaysia.

After gaining independence for more than six decades, with the various ‘trees’ being planted through various policies by politicians, racial discrimination has been rampant in our country until today. Although our founding father had once asked us to patiently wait for the fruition of policy efforts, one must really acknowledge the current state of racism in Malaysia and question if the ‘trees’ are really meaningfully planted and whether any ‘fruit’ had been borne.

On the 12th of November, a video of 29 Indian men being detained in Banting – even after a release order had been issued by the court – went viral on social media. Consequently, wider attention about looking into adversities faced by Indians in our country was once again ignited; this article, on the other hand, attempts to keep this important conversation going.

Police Custodial Deaths

Indians have disproportionately suffered from police custodial deaths. According to Malaysiakini, the official figure showed that 23.4% of the victims of police custodial deaths between 2002 and 2016 were Indians (who only comprise 7% of total national population). This figure, however, is projected to be as high as 54.8% according to Suaram. Crucially, the proportion of police custodial deaths does not reflect the racial composition of Malaysia: rather, Indians are more likely to become victims. 

Source: The Rakyat Post

While one might easily dismiss this issue by pointing out that Malays make up the largest number of police custodial deaths, we must not overlook the over-representation of Indians in this tragic societal problem. While the excessive use of violence among the police is inherently unjust and atrocious, exposing Indians to the disproportionate risk of police brutality reflects a wider societal notion of racial discrimination within this issue that no amount of glossing over could simply conceal. Hence, excessive use of violence among the police must be dealt with by holding unlawful policemen accountable and imposing strict regulation – after years of promising, an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) must be pushed through.

Gangsterism and Poverty

While we don’t want to risk oversimplifying the intersectionality of Indians in Malaysia, we do need to acknowledge that the systemic failure in providing proper state support towards alleviating those in poverty has led to wider social problems – one of which being gangsterism.

According to the official data in 2018, there were 4,143 active Indian gangsters in Malaysia, exceeding the amount of active gang members among the Malays and Chinese (which are both more populous in Malaysia).

However, no one is destined to be born a gangster, regardless of race and ethnicity. Gangsterism rampaging in a community is hardly racial in nature, instead it reflects other underlying social factors. More fundamentally, the more widespread affiliation with gangsterism stems from the rampant poverty and lack of social mobility. According to an article that looks into the origin of Indian gangsterism in Malaysia, poverty drives many Indians to seek pride, income and solidarity in gangs when they fail to attain upward social mobility through other channels.

On top of causing the increasing influence of gangsterism, poverty is itself another inherent problem faced by many Indians, causing severe social immobility, great life adversities and even physical or mental harms. According to a report produced by the Associated Press, generations of Indian labourers are trapped in plantations (rubber plantations in the 1900s and oil palm in the recent decades), hardly earning any substantial income and gaining any meaningful upward social mobility.

For generations, many Indians are forced into dependencies on major plantation companies, living in the basic housing provided by the companies. Illiteracy is still prevalent among these communities; the members lack the necessary opportunity and education to seek better prospects elsewhere. More notoriously, physical and mental assaults often happen to these Indian communities, in which women are even sexually abused.

Nonetheless, the lack of coherent policies and state support constitutes the systemic failures behind these tragedies. With multiple ‘plans’ or ‘blueprints’ being introduced by governments over several decades, the Indian community (especially those that are trapped in plantations) hardly receives any substantial and game-changing assistance from the government. Ranging from the lack of proper and equal education to inadequate labour protection, the government has failed to support its own Indian citizens with equal opportunities to succeed– that one crucial right that Indians deserve, just like any other Malaysians.    

With poverty widely affecting the livelihood of many Indians, the effect is prevalent: rampaging gangsterism, low quality of life, social immobility and abuses.

The Livelihood Problem: Housing and Job Application

On the wider scale, persistent racial discrimination against Indians in the housing and job markets has been adversely affecting their livelihood.

Source : Free Malaysia Today

According to a survey published by YouGov Omnibus in 2019, 46% of Indians interviewed had faced discrimination when renting property, considerably exceeding the proportions of Malays and Chinese facing the similar problems. More notoriously, 62% of Malaysians have seen rental advertisements with racial requirements, with 32% of them believing such racial requirements to be rightfully requested (‘make good business sense’) by the landlords. Normalised racial discrimination in the housing market has undeniably punished Indians for their racial identity, an issue which is scarcely dealt with or even confronted.

The difficulty faced by Malaysian Indians is further fuelled by the prejudice in the job market, in which Indians would face more difficulties in seeking employment compared to their similarly qualified counterparts of different ethnicities. This is statistically proven by a research conducted by Centre for Governance and Political Studies, which sent out job applications by made-up individuals with similar capabilities but different ethnicities to local firms. As a result, even though the application rate is identical across all races, an Indian male had a call back rate of 3.66% while an Indian female had 8.96%. This is significantly lower than the Chinese (32.73% for male and 43.88% for female) and Malays (7.86% for male, 12.80% for female without hijab and 9.14% for female with hijab).

All these prejudices, being deeply ingrained in the housing and job markets, would create massive difficulties for Indians to find comfortable houses and competitive jobs- rights they deserve, just like any other Malaysians. This application of racial discrimination is exacerbated when prejudices are normalised among the public, whereby people scarcely acknowledge the existence of racism as a deep-rooted problem in our society. So far, despite having legislations proposed to be tabled in the future, these prejudices are still being widely practised and are continuing to jeopardise the lives of many, with most perpetrators failing to be punished and held accountable.

Relook at the ‘Trees’

Police custodial deaths, gangsterism, poverty and rampant racial discrimination are just tips of the iceberg of adversities faced by our fellow Indian Malaysians. Before we could take pride in our Malaysian identity, one must ask oneself whether any other fellow Malaysians are left behind and, crucially, whether these people are left behind simply because of their different race and skin colour. Looking at the ‘trees’ promised by various politicians over the course of six decades since Independence, one must stop waiting blindly. If there is no ‘tree’ meaningfully planted, there will be no fruition after all.

Look at the ‘trees’, keep holding the fake promises accountable, and continue taking action for our fellow Indian Malaysians until the day when ‘fruits’ are eventually harvested.