In the early 1980s, I was in the Cheroh Rubber Estate in Raub taking instructions from the estate workers for the Bar Council's Legal Aid Centre. I took about 30 photographs of the appalling living conditions of the workers (almost 90 percent of whom were Indians).

When I returned to Kuala Lumpur, I passed these photos to a top MIC leader (a lawyer) and asked him to do something about the living conditions. He laughed and told me that there were worse conditions than those which I had photographed and implied indirectly that I was flogging a dead horse and should leave it alone.

I knew then that unless the MIC changes its leadership, the low-income Indians in this country are not going to see any improvement in their situation. When I read about the suffering that the low-income Indian community has to suffer, I think that it is about time all Malaysians act to stop the rot.

The consequences of the rot has affected and will affect every Malaysian in this country. The nightmare continues. Now we read about the current destruction of Hindu temples which must surely affect all classes of Indians.

Let me relate an interesting true story which a lawyer told me of a temple case. The trustees of a Chinese temple were sued for breach of the trust when they claimed to be the beneficial owners of the land. During cross-examination, the plaintiffs asked their lawyer to challenge the trustee who was in the witness box to go to the temple the next day to slaughter a chicken in the temple and swear that he was telling the truth. The trustee did so, and three days later he dropped dead!

I wonder if divine intervention is the only way in which the low-income Indian Malaysians can be saved from their lot. Surely not?