My father was a founder member of Kedah MIC; one of the original four who helped to set it up in Kedah in the early 50s. Nonetheless, having grown up around the atmosphere and politics of the party and having heard and observed the crab-culture of its adherents; many years ago I decided to stay as far away from MIC as I could. I have always done that.

Therefore there was nothing more repulsive for me than to receive this photograph through the Internet. The former Bar Council President wrote an excellent piece about being proud of being a pendatang; and more importantly about being part and parcel of the human race;

For that reason alone I have always considered myself a Malayalee and not an Indian of the MIC vintage and culture. Moreover there are no ‘Indians’ even in India as there more than 14 official cultures and ethnic groupings with more than one million adherents speaking a common language.

Therefore, any day my vote would go to Zaid Ibrahim as he is a man of not just principles but also with a personality and a character and with courage for his convictions. Can you ever imagine Zaid kissing the hand of any other Umno clown of today? He has learnt from his many mistakes of the past.

For those who have not, please read his book Saya Pun Melayu or the English translation to understand what he stands for and what his conviction are. He is no ordinary hand-kissing fellow who - unlike others - can be bought, sold and traded like cows and sheep.

He upholds his God-given dignity high and never claims to be the perfect human being and he acknowledges that we all have some skeletons in the cupboard if we dare to be honest to ourselves. That was Lim Kit Siang’s challenge to the Umno ‘heroes’.

Premised on the above photograph, allow me to invite and request every Malaysian of Indian heritage to reject this hand-kissing, dignity-selling individual because tomorrow we are never sure whose hand he has to kiss to move upwards the feudal hierarchy.  

If Malaysians have not forgotten, the cabinet had already issued a public policy under the Mahathir era that kissing the hand of even the king of Malaysia was not necessary. To me personally, it is the greatest self-denial of the God-given dignity of man and no human should ever stoop to bow to another.