LETTER | In the past, when the opposition took centre stage, they were fairly represented by Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Nurul Izzah Anwar, the late Nik Aziz Nik Mat, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, the late Karpal Singh, M Kulasegaran and Gobind Singh Deo.

In Pakatan Harapan today, we see Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Mukhriz Mahathir, and Muhyiddin Yassin leading the pack. Closely behind lie Kit Siang and Guan Eng.

Ethnic Indians in Harapan have been demoted to water boys.

While some may say that this shift in strategy is necessary for convincing the rural folks to vote for Harapan in the coming general election, then what is the fuss when BN leaders play by the same rules?

Recently, when addressing a group of youths, Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Mohammad Hassan was ambushed for his statement on ‘turning tables on the opposition’. Ironically, the same people were quiet when Bersatu members behaved in a rowdy and unruly manner, disrupting Negeri Sembilan’s Harapan convention. In fact, the situation became so heated that physical violence almost took place until Mukhriz intervened.

Harapan’s prime ministerial candidate, Mahathir, previously defended Perkasa’s Ibrahim Ali for calling for the burning of Malay language bibles with the word “Allah” in it. Why the silence when Perkasa representatives are blessed to join Harapan coalition?

In the middle of last year, representatives from Perkasa Youth protested outside Subang MP R Sivarasa’s office and stomped on his caricature as they voiced their disgust against the PKR leader. Six months later, 35 members from the same youth organisation crossed over to Harapan and Sivarasa kept mum. Are the Indians mere puppets in Harapan, just as Prof Ramasamy is in Penang?

Mahathir claims he would do more for the Indians if he is given a second chance. Many pointers were given in Harapan’s manifesto with regards to the upliftment of the Indians. However, there is no Indian leader in the coalition.

PKR youth chief Afif Bahardin said that the issue of Bersatu being a Malay-centric party is untrue because all parties in Harapan work together as a single opposition bloc. Umno-MCA-MIC are three separate organisations that work in a single BN bloc. How are the two any different?

In the entire Harapan line-up, DAP’s Kula Segaran is the only Indian in their leadership line-up. Gobind Singh Deo, who holds a higher position and garners more support in DAP elections than Guan Eng is not amongst Harapan’s high office bearers. Is it because of quota in accordance with ethnic representation in Malaysia? Or is it because the Deo family has not forgiven and accepted Mahathir’s pseudo U-turn?

Either way, what happened to transparency and racial equality that the opposition once boasted about? Contrastingly, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak seems to be laying much more focus on ethnicities Mahathir neglected. Reversal of roles, perhaps?

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.