I refer to the Malaysiakini report Doesn't Bangsa Malaysia include Indians?

If one thinks that just by using the catch-all Bangsa Malaysia slogan one becomes a Bangsa Malaysian, then that is being naïve and delusional.

Maybe for the Liberal Malay and for the vast majority of the Chinese citizens of the country, they are already at a level of social development where this makes the most sense as the next thing on the continuum of their needs.

For the vast majority of the Indians in the country however, their needs are totally different. What they need now are simply better basic education, equal opportunities for employment, and better access to skills training.

And also better basic living conditions, equal opportunities to start small businesses and most of all, the elimination of an apartheid-like colour bar which our colour-blind Bangsa Malaysians just plain refuse to accept exists

If our country is to do justice to the Indians and come clean of the sins of exploitation of the Indians in this country, then what the ruling elite needs to do is to urgently establish an affirmative action programme to accelerate the development of the Indians in the country where they become truly equals.

Then maybe ‘Bangsa Malaysia' may mean something at that point to the Indians. Affirmative action is needed now just to equalise for the injustices done to them systematically both during the colonial period as well as in the ensuing fifty odd years till today.

They did not and do not yet have any institutional support nor support from any community network to aid them in their development. They were and are left to their own meager means.

Given their history, that just means self destruction. The results of which we see are unfolding now - a clear criminal underclass developing, high suicide rates, high school dropout rates, young boy runaways, high incidence of single mothers, high unemployment, high incidence of alcoholism and more.

All of this simply leads to the self-destruction of a large section of a community. So, now you tell me, ‘does Bangsa Malaysia include Indians?