When will Malaysia be ‘colour blind?’

Malaysia’s skewed quota system, preferential treatment, and exclusive rights for one community, have stoked the fires of racism.

Shankar R. Santhiram

A few days ago, a Malaysian Indian lady posted a video from Pantai Remis saying that a beach side ice cream vendor refused to serve her when she wanted to buy ice creams for her nieces and nephews, on account of them being Indians.

Apparently, he had a police report posted on his cart that some “drunk Indians” had caused him trouble in the past, and hence he will no longer serve any Indians. This is simply appalling.

A Malay Malaysian good Samaritan who witnessed this episode eventually, out of the goodness of his heart, kindly then bought the ice creams for this lady’s family.

I had a similar experience recently but thankfully it did not happen to me personally. The head chef in my restaurant is getting married. And, he wanted to move out from the staff accommodation to his own place with his soon-to-be wife.

Over the past month, he found about eight lovely condos in and around the Tanjung Tokong area in Penang. But here is what shocked me: more than 50% of the owners, all Malaysian Chinese, told him that they “…won’t rent to Indians.”

And this in 2024! The “no renting to Indians” policy sounds like we live in the 1950s in the deep-south in the United States cloaked with nasty segregationist policies.

The irony is that when finally, he managed to find a really nice condo in the very same area, the owner was a “colour blind Malaysian Chinese.” This landlord obviously does not buy into the nonsensical stereotype that all Malaysian Indians are “problematic.”

The ice cream episode and my head chef’s troubles are not new stories in Malaysia. If you ask Malaysian Indians, it’s a recurring trend. There have been too many incidences of overt racism, especially targeted at one of the smallest communities in Malaysia.

I also notice that there are “apologists” from within the Malaysian Indian community who find excuses for such behaviour. Some of my Indian lawyer friends tell me that the biggest defaulters of rent in Malaysia are members of the Indian community. And this is why, “rightfully” some landlords do not wish to rent to this community.

They say it is a “statement of fact.”

I reckon that people who abide by this “stereotype” also “buy in” to other ridiculous labels that were prevalent in Malaysia like “all Malays are lazy” and “all Chinese are money-minded and kiasu.” These typecasts are absolute nonsensical hogwash.

People who make these stereotypical observations hardly concede the fact that together with the Orang Asli community, Indians are the most disadvantaged community in Malaysia, notwithstanding the existence of a small percentage of Indians in high paying jobs.

For the majority of this underprivileged community, there are no equal opportunities in education, technical and vocational training. There is no mainstream acknowledgement that Malaysians of Indian heritage deserve to be treated with dignity, and not as second- or third-class citizens in their own motherland.

I am quite sure that in some quarters of our society, they will be upset about what I write here. I have raised a race-related issue for discussion before. And as always, I now brace myself for vitriol with calls for me to “balik India” if I do not like it here in Malaysia.

The question is, why does every discussion provoke such reactions of nastiness? Why do we keep saying that race discussions are “too sensitive?” Are we just overly emotional in Malaysia that uncomfortable issues must permanently be swept under the carpet?

Our education system and political processes actively promote racial stereotypes and descriptions. We must remember the incidents where our national schools have held exclusive extra classes for public examination preparations, for only one race. And, so many other similar events have been recently documented.

It is clear that our public education system divides the population by race and religion. The system has been corrupted with religious and racial dogma. Who now expects our children to live together harmoniously in a multi-ethnic society with this indoctrination from a young age?

Malaysians lament about a lop-sided government service with 90% of our public servants coming from one race only. And, we moan about the “brain-drain” in Malaysia. Are we blind to not see that racist national policies push the brightest and best minds out of Malaysia to shine elsewhere?

Over many decades, the institutional prejudices that our government has propagated with the likes of a skewed quota system, preferential treatment, and exclusive rights for only one community, and that too the majority race in Malaysia, have continued to embolden politicians to stoke the fires of racism.

Even today, our Madani government cannot do much to correct the course of this inherent racism that is so widespread in our country. They are just doing a balancing act to stay in power by appeasing the narrow-minded.

So, when will Malaysia become “colour-blind?”