ADUN SPEAKS | Pakatan Harapan is not complete without adequate representation.

I quite agree with Ambiga Sreenevasan that it would be a good start for Pakatan Harapan national leaders to open up discussion with existing Indian leaders in Harapan component parties first before talking to others about ensuring adequate Indian representation.

The present Harapan line-up might not be adequate in terms of addressing the question of Indian representation. I strongly believe that in the coming election, Indians are willing to cast their ballots in favour of Harapan.

Adequate representation of Indians in the Harapan at the national and state levels will only contribute to a thinking amongst Indians that Harapan has their best interests at heart.

The long years of Indian community's association with the BN are bitter and sad. This relationship has only served to bring about torment and misery to Indians who sweated and shed their blood for the well being of the country.

Harapan national leadership should recognise and give due respect to Indians by way of providing an effective representation. Remember, Indians made a difference to Pakatan Rakyat in the 2008 and 2013 general elections. In the coming general election, Indians might be even be considered as kingmakers in some electoral constituencies.

Indians should be respected not because they are Indians, but due to their immense contribution to this country.

Indians might be numerically small in number in comparison to Malays and Chinese, but they might make difference in 60 electoral constituencies in the country where they have a sizeable presence. Even this was admitted by none other than former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in talking about the need for Indian support to defeat BN in the coming general election.

I fully understand that not all the parties in Harapan are multi-racial or multi-religious. In a way, the Harapan line-up reflects the leadership line-up of the respective political parties. But this is not an over determining factor as there is much flexibility on the part of Harapan's presidential council to bring about fairer and more equitable representation.

Harapan is about to face a formidable foe in BN in the coming general election, a force with wealth and power of incumbency. Given this, it is only natural that Harapan thinks carefully on the question of adequate representation. I am not merely talking about Indian representation alone, but representation that brings together other communities and groups, not only in the peninsula but also in the status of Sabah and Sarawak.

Forming a political coalition to take on BN is a herculean task. It is not easy to bring together political parties with different ideologies and different personalities together for a common purpose. I think that the four component parties have come together at a particular historical juncture to show to Malaysians that an alternative political representation is possible.

However, this long road to the formation and consolidation of Harapan is not complete if there are groups and communities in the country who might feel sidelined being not part of the political representation.

P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the state assemblyperson for Perai.

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