Nov 25, 2007 will go down as the day the greatest demonstration was held to express the state of hopelessness the Indian Malaysians were living in independent Malaysia. It was a day to show the years of displacement and marginalisation caused by selective policies.

It was the culmination of a long journey of neglect that made the Indians more disadvantaged than others .The irony is that the bulk of Tamils who came to Malaysia under the indentured labour system of the British were from the lowest caste stratification of the Indian society.

Post-independent India evolved an affirmative action programme that has moved this lot up mainstream society via educational support and government programmes. Those who came to Malaysia lost out on this post-independence programme and on the contrary faced further discrimination and hardship caused by the Umno government .

With India’s emerging economic growth and the political conviction to create an equitable society, India has become a land of opportunity - thus proving wrong the decision of our forefathers to get on that ship to Penang.

The teargas canisters that were indiscriminately fired on Nov 25, 2007 were a classical demonstration by the government of the day that it has no human compassion or moral responsibility to those who were entrusted upon them by the British colonial masters.

Thus the initiative by Hindaf chairperson P Waythamoorthy to submit a memorandum to the British government on that day to show the world that there was an historical distortion of responsibilities between the pre-independent Malaya and post-independent Malaysia governments.

The issue today we are still struggling to realise is not peculiar to the Indian causes alone. If the government does not realise its failure to create an equitable society based on pure economic parametres, this will eventually lead to multi-faceted social consequences which will be more difficult and costly in terms of remedy in years to come.

Hindraf is just a forerunner for similar marginal community support groups and they need to succeed because the ramifications will be great. Hindraf’s success will pave the way for other minoritiy groups who are in a similar plight and who seek representation and attention for their cause. Hindraf is the catalyst for the expression of those who need attention, who need support and who need affirmative programmess.

Such groups need not be limited to race or religion and indeed they could be the disabled, the single mothers, the homeless, the urban squatters and so forth. Hindaf actions could be well equated with that of the US civil rights movement in the 60s. Once the Civil Rights Bill was endorsed by Congress, other marginalised communities were also able to raise their plights and problems too.

It is therefore very pertinent that all level-minded, civic-conscious and true Malaysians look at Hindraf as an expression of the disadvantaged rather then to look at it from a racial prism. It will be for the nation’s good if movements like Hindraf succeed in the democratic space to bring about changes in the socio-economic landscape.

It will set the pace for others to follow through and will enable the evolution of an empathetic, and caring Malaysian generation. We should also look at the Hindraf rallies as a real cry for freedom. Their success will endorse greater democracy in the country and will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion.

We will then close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, religion against religion.