I am responding to Chandran's letter, [#1] Deaths: Do we 'forget and accept' the situation? [/#] (March 15). Teachers and schools are a mirror of the larger society. The Indians have been, for too long, the passive element in Malaysian society: Smiling with servile gratitude at the chance to be allowed to live between the Malays and the Chinese.

Why do Indians expect the Umno government to solve their social, economic and political problems?

The MIC is a club of opportunists who have fed fat on the votes of the plantation Indians to enrich themselves on the crumbs from Umno. The plantation ownerships have changed and the trusting Indians have been displaced by non-unionised immigrant Indonesian labour.

The Umno government has allowed illegal Indonesian immigrants to fill the labour pool.

At the bottom end of the social heap, in squatter communities living on the poverty line and in despair, it does not take much to spark conflict and hatred. They have nothing to lose but their frustrations, at a raw deal from life. This is a great breeding ground for gangsters and malcontents. They are outside the ambit of government programmes and civil society norms.

It is time the Indian community sacked the MIC from representing them. Vote the knaves out. Take social activism in your own hands. Participate in the NGOs and join issue-based not race-based political parties. Correct the wrongs yourselves. No government cares for minorities. Their votes come from majorities.