“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” - Martin Luther King Jr

COMMENT | If you want to understand why it really does not matter if Indians vote or who they vote for in the upcoming Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election, look no further than at Selangor exco V Papparaidu, who used bureaucratic legerdemain to placate the grievances of Indian estate workers.

If these were different people backed by economic and electoral power the response would have been much different. With these people, the road is long. It’s normally a party like PSM, which does not get votes but does the hard work, that sticks around.

For example, PSM settled the housing issue of 393 families from four estates in Dengkil.

"The houses are expected to be completed in October. BN and Pakatan Harapan had a hand in the project but it was PSM and its movement that helped bring the matter to their attention and demand action," PSM stalwart S Arutchelvan said in 2023.

This is just one example of the sometimes decades-long struggles that...