It is a tale, told by an idiot,
Full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

- “Macbeth”, William Shakespeare

LETTER | These beautiful lines from “Macbeth” flashed across my mind almost immediately, as my eyes were registering the words of MIC president Dr S Subramaniam in a recent report, in which he boasted that MIC will obtain an average of 65 percent of Indians’ support for the next general election.

Now if this is indeed true, why has the thaai katchi (mother party of Indians) already waved white flags in areas with the highest Indian voter concentrations in the country?

Not only did they give up three state seats with a high proportion of Indian voters in Perak in the last general election (Sungkai, Behrang and Pasir Panjang), they are now also planning to abscond from Hutan Melintang, a seat with one of the largest concentrations of Indians in Malaysia (32 percent Indian voters).

The other cowardly plan in motion is a seat swap between Teluk Kemang, which has roughly 14,800 Indian voters, and Jelebu, which has roughly 2,600 Indian voters.

Why is the thaai katchi - which boasts that it has up to 80 percent of Indian support in certain areas in Malaysia - running with its tail between its legs to Jelebu, while avoiding Teluk Kemang, a seat with significant Indian voters which it has contested election after election?

After all, the second-in-command of MIC, K Devamany, is touted to contest the seat, albeit being trounced in the former bastion of the great S Samy Vellu, Sungai Siput, in the last general election.

In Johor, MIC started their escape plan from the Indian community much earlier, in fact during the last general election. They gave up Permas, a state seat with the highest proportion of Indian voters in southern Johor. Now there are talks they will give up Puteri Wangsa also.

Another classic example where MIC’s superficial chest thumping doesn’t translate to action is in northern Johor.

There, instead of contesting in Bekok, the seat with the largest proportion of Indian voters (18 percent) in Johor, they contest in nearby Gambir, which has a significantly smaller proportion of Indian voters at 4 percent.

The delusions of grandeur of Dr Subramaniam don’t end there. He also said that during the last election, up to 55 percent of Indians supported MIC.

If that is true, why did P Ramasamy of DAP obtain 78 percent of the votes cast in Perai, a constituency with up to 36 percent Indian voters - the highest percentage of Indian voters in Penang - where the MIC candidate L Krishnan was only about 900 votes away from losing his deposit?

If Dr Subramaniam is correct, why did former MIC Youth chief T Mohan embarrassingly lose by over 15000 majority votes in Seri Andalas which had 35 percent Indian voters (highest percentage of Indian voters in Selangor)?

And why did the current MIC Youth chief C Sivarraajh only obtain 25 percent of the votes cast in urban Buntong where Indians make up 48 percent of the electorate (highest percentage of Indian voters in the country), so much so he has now decamped himself to rural Cameron Highlands, hoping of course to be rescued by the Orang Asli who make up roughly 20 percent of the voters there?

I’d like to conclude by reminding Dr Subramaniam and his thaai katchi followers of the words of the legendary Joe Louis, former world heavyweight boxing champion who said “You can run, but you can’t hide”. MIC - you can run, but you can’t hide from the Indians.