Indians are one of the ethnic groups in Malaysia. We are very well aware of the sub-ethnic groups of Indians in Malaysia which can be classified as caste. This caste system has been in practice since the arrival of Indians to Malaysia.

On July 23, a Kongu International Conference was held and our honourable prime minister graced the event, which was claimed to be the gateway for foreign investment in the global arena of international trading. I am deeply saddened by the act of our prime minister to apparently support a caste-based activity, which of course will be denied by the organisers.

Kongu Tamilar predominantly consists of a sub-ethnic group called Gaundars in Malaysia. Indians generally are very well aware of this caste system and how the race-based political system here is influenced by this system.

MIC, the coalition party of the ruling Barisan Nasional party, is the main culprit for this system to be widely in practice here. The leaders allegedly typically practice this to sustain their position in the party, and none would admit it. Now, how does this become a threat for a community?

Firstly, caste splits a community and causes equality issues. This divide-and-rule method was once used by colonisers and followed by local leaders. Being fanatic about their caste and indulging completely in it has caused the mentality of thinking selfishly.

Slowly the caste-based societies in Malaysia have started to grow after the Hindraf movement as people lost trust in MIC, and to gain back their trust, the ruling party encouraged Indians to form caste-based societies behind the scene. In other words, this has become a hidden national agenda.

Now, with the idea of seeking an identity, these societies have been actively engaging in activities to form a strong bond among people who belong to the respective castes. Now the community is divided into several groups. These societies have started to present their demands to the government and funds were allegedly distributed for them to carry out their caste-based activities.

Instead of helping each other's growth generally, the mentality has changed to develop particular group of people only to sustain their identity as a caste. Here, the poor discriminated Indian community has been left behind and none these societies bothered to care about their welfare. Thus, the social ills and imbalanced growth of the Indian community have created a wider gap among them and unity is now a question mark among this community.

In fact, this is what the government had aimed to maintain their stability as rulers. Most of these caste-based societies are allegedly being led by MIC background leaders and have become a parasite to their own community.

This dirty political ideology is a great misguidance and dangerous for the progress of this community. The caste system is totally absurd and irrelevant for the Indian community in Malaysia. Please wake up people to stand against this practice for the overall progress of this community.