Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang has joined in the war of words between MIC president S Samy Vellu and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) adviser Anwar Ibrahim on the plight of the Indians in Malaysia.

On Thursday, it was reported that Samy Vellu had challenged Anwar - the former deputy premier turned opposition stalwart - to contest against him in the coming general election.

The next day, Anwar lambasted his one-time cabinet colleague, accusing him of failing to uplift the Indian community.

In a stinging counter-attack over the weekend, Samy Vellu, who is also works minister, called Anwar a liar and claimed that he did not help the community when he was in power.

Commenting on this heated exchange, Lim said he received calls from Indian Malaysians wanting to know why the MIC president had been a party to the marginalisation of Indians and kept quiet for so long.

The DAP veteran said it had been almost nine years since Anwar was expelled from the government but the plight of the Indians had become worse rather than better.

Two questions

He lamented that the situation had reinforced the status of the Indian community as the new underclass in Peninsular Malaysia.

In view of this, Lim raised two questions on "behalf" of Indian Malaysians:

1)Why has the marginalisation of Indian Malaysians as the new underclass in Peninsular Malaysia gotten worse nine years after Anwar was sacked?

2) What concrete steps and master-plans have been adopted by Barisan Nasional under the Ninth Malaysia Plan to restore to Indian Malaysians their full citizenship rights as Malaysians and enable them to believe beyond a shadow of doubt that they have an equal place under the Malaysian sun.

Lim's statement, which was posted on his blog , had garnered a huge response from readers who were mostly critical of Samy Vellu and MIC.

On Sunday, Samy Vellu also said that he had proof of letters sent by him to Anwar, when he was still deputy premier, seeking assistance for estate workers but the latter did not help.