Cattle farmer A Devindran is looking for a piece of land - but he is looking even harder for an Indian politician to press his case in Malaysia's multiracial maze as the country heads for elections on March 21.

"My dear Australian dairy cows are dropping dead. My income is affected. I have a family to feed and no one is listening to my plight," Devindran, 38, told AFP.

"Where are all the Indian politicians who pledged to serve the people. All I get is being pushed from one person to another while the authorities come and demolish my cow shed because I am occupying someone's land."

Devindran has been evicted from private estate land where he ran his 200 dairy cows, and is scurrying from one government office to another to secure a legitimate piece of land of his own.

His woes are familiar to the country's two million Indians who say their voices are hardly heard because they account for just eight percent of the country's population of 25 million.

More than 60 percent of the population are Malays, who dominate politics, while some 26 percent are Chinese, who dominate the economy.

Lack of clout

"We have lost our rights. We are squeezed out from the private and public sector," said P Ramasamy, a political scientist at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, who says Indians are at the bottom of the country's economic and political ladder.

"There are thousands of other cases like Devindran's. Indian temples are demolished. Indians face the full brutality of the police. They are denied university places," he said.

Ramasamy blamed the Malaysian Indian Congress, a partner in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, for a lack of clout in the Malay-dominated government.

"The Barisan Nasional is under Malay hegemony. Indians are pushed to the edge. It is very tragic," he said.

Some 80 percent of Indians are working class and lack skills, capital and education, he said.

Their ancestors were brought to this former British colony from southern Indian in the 19th century, mainly as labourers in the rubber estates. Thousands died from malaria.

Social activists say the vast contribution of Indians to make Malaysia what it is today has been forgotten. S Arutchelvam, a plantation activist said Indians are left out of mainstream development.

"In race politics, numbers and wealth are important. Indians have neither," he said.

To compound the predicament, Indians score top grades in violence, poverty and alcoholism.

Police say there are dozens of Indian criminal gangs with more than 1,000 active members in the country.

Arutchelvam attributed Indian involvement in crime to the uprooting of youths from estates to urban slums.

"They are frustrated for not having an opportunity and they feel discriminated against. So what do you do when pushed to the wall - even a snake will strike if you corner it. That's where Indians in Malaysia are. Pushed to the corner," he said.

Most Indians back BN

Arutchelvam said while many Indians are doctors and lawyers, they represent only a small fraction of the community and that just 1.5 percent of national wealth is controlled by Indians.

In contrast the other minority - the Chinese - are estimated to own some 40 percent of corporate equity.

Despite the tough background, most Indians back the ruling coalition, Arutchelvam said.

But for Devindran, it is time for change. "I will vote for the opposition. My 15 other family members will vote the opposition. It is time for change now."

He did not specify which party he would vote for, but it could be the socialist Democratic Action Party, a multiracial group that held just 10 of the 194 seats in the last parliament.

He is a Tamil, like 80 percent of Malaysia's Indians, and as a Hindu is unlikely to vote for the main opposition Islamic Party, which wants to establish a theocratic state in Malaysia. - AFP