Now Anwar Ibrahim has found it fit to comment on the state of the Indian Malaysian community. It is true the Indians are the most deprived community in the country. Fortunately our professionals are fairly okay though they could have done better. Our Indian professionals receive little help from the banks. If at all the young medical doctors get some loans from banks to set up clinics, let me tell you this.

Most of the time they receive little or hardly enough to last a few months. If the repayments cannot match the income, then God save the poor soul. The bank officer shows no mercy. They would treat him/her as scavengers as if they are thieves stealing scrap metal from backyards. They will begin to respect you only if you put your foot down and give him a thorough scolding as if he is a nine-year-old school boy and threaten them with the most destructive and painful legal suit. That is when he (the banker) would sit down and talk sense with you.

Talking about income how often does the young Indian doctor get into the big companies as panels for the staff or workers? Most of the time the Indian doctors are rejected to sit in on panels the reply being 'Our company policy is that we require a bumiputra as a partner in the clinic'. Woe be the racial attitude of these companies.

This also applies to the lawyers. How many Indian lawyers are on the panels of large financial institutions? The answer is small or none. This again is because of the sick and convoluted minds of the company officials that their legal panels comprise of bumiputra partners.

I will not go into the nitty-gritty of this except to say that our Indian professionals survive pretty well simply because of their competency and skills. In a situation when one is thrown onto an uneven playing field with hidden bobby traps, the natural human instinct is 'evolutionary excellence'. It is through this and nothing else that our Indian professionals in this country are able to make a decent success.

If we talk of other Indian businesses, just take a look at the banana leaf restaurants in the country. They are always 'full house'. Why? Because their food is spicy, mouth-watering and my goodness, it is lively food! Let us take a look at our teachers in this country. Our best teachers in the past have been Indians. They were the ones who gave their best dedication to the children in schools as if every child was his/her own. Even in these times, with the few Indian teachers left in service, they still are the best. If you pop into any government department and if you are lucky to find one single Indian staff, you can be sure he is probably a most hard working soul working his butt off.

So, I was indeed sick in my intestines when I read in the press that the so-called MIC chieftain had told unemployed Indian doctors from unrecognised medical colleges to leave Malaysia and go and work in foreign countries where their degrees are recognised. I honestly thought this was crazy, from a man who has run out of all ideas yet who insists on sitting on as the chief of the MIC. He cannot give any more leadership or hope to the Indians in Malaysia.

Yet, he seems to be suffering from the morbid impulse that he needs to hold the hand of every Indian to help them keep walking. If he was truly concerned for the Indians in the manner of real concern, then he would have done the necessary to retain and maintain the two Indian ministerial portfolios in the cabinet. But he did everything to maintain a single post for the MIC and that was for himself and none but himself. He probably gave the impression to the prime minister that he is the king for the Indians.

After all, Tunku Abdul Rahman maintained two MIC ministers, so did Abdul Razak and so did Hussein Onn. Why then has Samy Vellu been the only Indian minister since the death of V Manikavasagam 27 years ago in 1979? That is his greed and self-centredness. Look at the pathetic state of our Indian youths in the country. They the most ruthless gangsters and murderers in the country. This state of affairs did not happen overnight.

I hold Samy responsible as he did nothing to provide hope and counselling to these disillusioned Indian youths. Samy has indeed become a very rich Malaysian and it is time he leaves the scene and let someone who is more capable take over. If he thinks he has to train someone to replace him then he is ridiculing himself. Leadership skills are among the inborn characteristics. I hope he understands this.