Goats and Mutton
Exactly why should Indians in this country be pegged under a common political label? Are we all goats, simply to be herded around based on the label branded on us?
By G. Krishnan (Imagine….)
I’ve never been a fan of the mainstream media and I suspect a vast number of you also cannot stand the pathetic propaganda that gets repeatedly published in these government mouthpieces. Let me be clear: Like so many of you, I’ve also given up taking seriously what passes for so-called news and commentary in these publications. Of course I still enjoy the occasional entertainment I derive from skimming the pedestrian commentaries by some of the conveniently hand-picked columnists.
As a case in point, some days back I came across another pathetic article supposedly lamenting the lack of ‘unity’ among Indians in Malaysia. How ironic, given all the hoopla we’ve had in recent days regarding the subject of ‘unity’ involving PAS and Umno. At any rate, back to the Indians for now. Among other things, the writer made a big fuss about how Indian ‘disunity’ seemed manifest by the proliferation of Indian-based political parties.
Now here is a perfect example of how the absurd communalism rot has become second-nature to even the educated and literate among us. If only we could see that it’s not the apparent disunity that presumably holds Indians from advancing, it’s the racism so pervasive in our social policies. If only these people could recognize that the presence of multiple Indian-based political parties is not even remotely relevant to the source of the problem of lack of Indian progress in the country.
Don’t get me wrong; if I had my way, I’d just as well see all these race-based parties disappear in a heart-beat, as I’m convinced that the main source of our stagnation as a nation is the persistence of these race-based parties, which only affirm the absurd racist system we have become so comfortable with. In the case of the Indians, it matters little whether Indians are eight or eighty percent of the population and whether they have two or twelve political parties representing them.
Read more at: IMAGINE…
