The opposition has described yesterday’s announcement that Thaipusam would be made a public holiday as a “highly opportunistic and self-serving” exercise aimed to salvage S Samy Vellu’s political life.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told the 15,000-strong MIC rally at the Cheras badminton stadium on Sunday that the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya would join five other states to observe Thaipusam - to be celebrated on Wednesday - as a public holiday.

At present, Thaipusam is a public holiday in Negri Sembilan, Perak, Penang, Johor and Selangor.

“If there is no public holiday, the whole of Kuala Lumpur will be jammed up. So might as well give a public holiday,” said the premier, whose announcement was met with a roar of approval.

Abdullah was referring to the thousands of Hindu devotees who marched from Kuala Lumpur to the Batu Caves temple in the city’s northern fringe.

According to Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, the public holiday declaration was “a gambit to restore the political stocks of Samy Vellu” among the two million ethnic Indian minorities.

In recent months, the government has been put under the spotlight regarding its treatment of Indian Malaysians in the wake of the Nov 25 mammoth rally by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).

The Hindraf protest highlighted the grievances of Malaysia's Indians - descendants of labourers brought over by British colonial rulers in the 1800s - who say they are marginalised in terms of education, wealth and opportunities.

New underclass

The police cracked down heavily on the Hindraf rally - attended by a crowd of 30,000 - with volleys of tear gas and barrage of chemical-laced water.

As a result, MIC strongman Samy Vellu’s popularity among Indian Malaysians has taken a battering.

“Hindraf had been achieve in one rally on Nov 25 what Samy Vellu had failed to do in more than 28 years as MIC president and sole Indian cabinet minister,” said Lim in a statement.

Three weeks after the mammoth street rally in Kuala Lumpur, the government detained five top Hindarf leaders under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial.

“Abdullah had promised to be different when he became prime minister with his refreshing call four years ago to Malaysians ‘to work with me and not for me’ – but he has proven to be a great disappointment as he is no different from other politicos in BN in the past four years,” added Lim.

According to Lim, the holiday declaration was “too little and too late as it failed to meet the minimal kick-off needed to address the long-standing marginalisation of the Indians in Malaysia”, turning the minority group into the country’s “new underclass”.