I refer to MGG Pillai's article, [#1] Pandithan outfoxes Samy and Kayveas [/#] (Feb 13), which, among others, suggests that the MIC under the leadership of S Samy Vellu had neglected the so-called Indian underclass. I would like to correct several misconceptions in this article and explain MIC's political mission.

In order to obtain, a proper perspective of the current position of the Indian community in Malaysia, it is necessary to first turn to history and understand the dynamics of Malaysia's economic progress, particularly over the past 20 years.

The Indian labour underclass, a derogatory classification by MGG is the consequence of the divide-and-rule method of the British Empire, when, from the 19th century, tens of thousands of Indians were brought to the then Malaya to work in the rubber estates, build roads and the national rail network. Over the decades, an unfortunate race-vocation identification evolved and broadly, Indians have been identified as labourers.

Consequently, the elimination of such race-vocation labelling, the upliftment of the social status of the Indian community and their economic upgrading has been the cornerstone of MIC's political struggle and mission. Samy Vellu has provided valuable leadership to the Indian community and his contributions are several and too lengthy to list in this rebuttal.

However, I must single out Samy Vellu's emphasis on education for the Indian community, which has provided an effective ladder for the Indian working class to be upwardly mobile. Testimony to the success of this emphasis on education is the increasing number of Indians leaving their traditional vocations, including the estates, for better-paying jobs in towns and cities.

In addition, the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation of Malaysia has also resulted in many estates adjoining urban centres to be re-developed into new townships. As a result, over the recent years, the Indian community has witnessed a generation in transition.

I would also like to point out at this juncture, that when the estates of Golden Hope and Taiko Plantations were acquired for the KLIA and Putrajaya projects by the federal government, all the estate workers were paid the benefits as laid down by the laws of Malaysia. For the families that elected to remain in Putrajaya, MIC had ensured that the government had provided them housing and Tamil schools. In addition, federal allocations have also been granted to temples and other community facilities.

It is clear that the rapid transition experienced by Malaysia has resulted in significant improvement of the Indian society and at the same time it is not denied that in some sections of this community, there have been unfortunate social problems. Such manifestations are not restricted only to the Indian community, but have been experienced by the other communities as well.

MIC under the leadership of Samy Vellu continues to strive for improvements for the Indian community and any fair-minded person would appreciate that this endeavour cannot be accomplished overnight.