I find Ho Kin Chai's opinion piece, ' When elephants fight, ants and the MIC suffer ', very interesting although I would say his analytical findings apply only to the Indian?based or led parties in the Barisan National or Indian BN candidates. His conclusions appear not to be supported by the performances of Indian Malaysians in the opposition parties.

Take for example, the Seenivasagam brothers of the PPP. The heyday of the PPP was from the late 50s till the early 70s. DR and SP Seenivasagam were political royalty in the Chinese-dominated Kinta Valley. No one, not even the DAP, could touch them. Virtually every Ipoh Chinese admired and supported them.

In the 1969 election, the PPP formed a loose coalition with the Gerakan and DAP not to contest each other and finished just two state seats short of forming the Perak state government. Certainly there were Chinese PPP candidates but the whole party operations were led and managed by the two Indian Malaysians.

Unfortunately following the death of the fiery DR, his more quiet and cautious brother SP decided to follow the Gerakan into the Barisan National in 1973. The following year the PPP suffered its worst result, nearly losing all its seats. It has not recovered since. So Ho Kin Chai's analysis does apply today for the PPP under the BN. One just wonder how the PPP would have fared today had SP Seenivasagam not taken the party into the BN?

The DAP has frequently fielded great Indian Malaysians who have won with fairly large majority in Chinese-dominated areas. P Patto, Mathaban Nair and the well-known Karpal Singh were examples. When the Chinese voted for these gentlemen, they were not looked upon as Indian Malaysians, unlike the experiences of their BN counterparts. They stood as DAP candidates and were accepted as such. Karpal was adored by the Chinese Penangites, at least until 1999. He lost the last time because of the PAS factor and not because he was an Indian. The proof in this is that Lim Kit Siang lost as well.

It would be interesting also to look up the performance of the Indian Malayan candidates standing under the Barisan Socialist banner of the 50s and 60s.

The common denominator appears to be that an Indian Malaysian standing as a BN candidate would be at the whim and fancy of the Malay and Chinese electorates while those standing under the banner of opposition parties have been accepted on their own merits or that of their party. The colour of their skin did not matter.