Lack Of Unity A Snag For Indian Community

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Without a cohesive, united voice it makes it harder for the community to advocate for its rights and interests with the government and other powerful entities.
From Moaz Nair
Disagreement has become too common among Indian politicians in the country, leading to the formation of too many political parties to represent the community, with each claiming that the government is not doing enough for them.
Malaysian Indians only make up an estimated 6.6% of the population. Furthermore, there are at least seven distinct political parties (plus another quarter-of-a-dozen dysfunctional ones) whose agendas, as they claim, are focused on or include substantial representation of the Indian community in the country.
Indians in the country should accept the fact that they are politically fragmented. There are too many political platforms to represent a small segment of the country’s population.
Can they ever come under a single political platform to examine their community’s shortfalls by putting aside individual political ambitions? For now, it appears like this is near impossible, as almost every Indian politician wants to be the leader of their community.
The lack of a cohesive, united voice makes it harder for the community to advocate for its rights and interests with the government and other powerful entities.
Thus, it goes without saying that being politically disunited, Indians in the country have weak bargaining power.
And their internal political divisions and bickering are making it difficult for them to address their community’s economic and social problems effectively. Without political unity, the community finds it challenging to collectively pursue economic and educational advancement and to counter social ills among their younger generation.
Ideally, for better bargaining power, Indian politicians have to first of all call for unity among themselves and call for a single political platform before engaging with any incumbent government to address the community’s grievances.
But then, as it is, to call for a single political party for all Indians is just wishful thinking – “never the twain shall meet”.
A better option would then be for the small Indian population to go with the political flow in the country.
Indian leaders to assist the community may not necessarily come from an Indian-based political party. These leaders can be from a multiracial party representing a multiracial government. - FMT
Moaz Nair is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.

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