{"id":1480,"date":"2008-03-03T23:05:28","date_gmt":"2008-03-03T15:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/03\/03\/pandithan-factor-in-attracting-indian-voters\/"},"modified":"2008-03-03T23:05:28","modified_gmt":"2008-03-03T15:05:28","slug":"pandithan-factor-in-attracting-indian-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/03\/03\/pandithan-factor-in-attracting-indian-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandithan factor in attracting Indian voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well,\u00a0I\u00a0don’t have much\u00a0info on IPF, so can’t comment on them. But I have seen IPF posters at a few places.\u00a0Even saw IPF supporters during\u00a0nomination day<\/a> in Klang.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Desperate MIC turns to ailing Pandithan<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.malaysiakini.com\/news\/79085
\nBaradan Kuppusamy | Mar 3, 08 4:54pm<\/p>\n

One would be mistaken that Indian Progressive Front (IPF) president MG Pandithan is contesting in the elections going by the numerous posters and banners depicting him in several constituencies.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0fact Pandithan is fighting for his life at the General Hospital and has been politically inanimate for long, but some MIC candidates have resurrected his name, face and memory, to squeeze some capital.\u00a0 They are hoping his former followers who now form the backbone of Hindraf, will sympathise and back them by a long shot.<\/p>\n

It shows how desperate MIC which ignored, belittled and condemned Pandithan for many years is, now trying to kick some dust out of a political dead horse. It is widely believed that Pandithan, who has been seriously ill for over a year is dying. But his wife issued a statement to the Tamil dailies on Sunday that he is being treated and will “get well” and return home.<\/p>\n

The IPF revolt<\/p>\n

The IPF leadership has also split into several factions and one is trying to be opposition (on its own) while another is lending its support to the various mentris besar who have the misfortune to have large chunks of Indians\/Hindraf voters in their constituencies.<\/p>\n

Although gravelly ill and unable to lift his fingers, Pandithan continues to issues statements in support of MIC president S Samy Vellu and Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in particular and the BN in general.<\/p>\n

Just like now, Indians had revolted in 1990. In that year Pandithan led the Tamil working class and joined the Gagasan Rakyat coalition led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. They voted opposition and scared the government of Dr Mahathir Mohamad after some top Umno leaders won by small majorities.<\/p>\n

Tengku Razaleigh eventually rejoined Umno in style leaving Pandithan to beg to join BN himself but with Samy Vellu opposing his application, it never materialised. Eventually the original IPF broke and many talented leaders left, leaving Pandithan to rule an empty roost.<\/p>\n

Some who left rejoined MIC while others left politics altogether going into business. Several much older and wiser ones have found their way into Hindraf as “co-coordinators.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Much hotter now<\/p>\n

The current Hindraf fever however is much hotter then the fever Pandithan set off among the Tamil masses when he was expelled in 1988. In 1989 he formed the IPF and toured and in 1990 he led his followers to vote opposition.<\/p>\n

The parallels to Hindraf are unmistakable except that the intensity of the current political fever is much higher and more widespread. While before it was confined to the Tamil working class, now every section of the Indian community is involved. The impact this time is much greater because latest indications are Indian support for Barisan Nasional (BN) has plummeted from a high of 80% to a low of just 30%.<\/p>\n

A combination of factors is responsible.<\/p>\n

Among these is the failure of the prime minister to “persuade” Samy Vellu to retire. Another focus of anger is Gerakan’s failure to field any Indian candidates saying “none was qualified.” Many Hindraf supporters find this insulting and have been firing away SMS messages to each other urging everyone to “teach Gerakan” and by extension BN, “a lesson.”<\/span><\/p>\n

If these campaigns hold, the result can be seen in Penang where Indian DAP candidates contesting in constituencies with large Indian voters, against BN candidates, stand a better chance to win.<\/p>\n

At least three state seats in Penang and Lunas in Kedah are considered lost by some MIC veterans. Other seats with an improving chance of victory are Kota Alam Shah where DAP’s M. Manoharan, although detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), is standing and Kapar where PKR’s S. Manikavasagam is challenging MIC incumbent P Komala Devi.<\/p>\n

Hindraf 5<\/p>\n

Another key grievance is the continued detention of the five Hindraf leaders, widely regarded by Indians as heroes and innocent of the “terrorism accusation” without trial under the ISA. “We consider them as innocent and it is not fair and just to jail innocent people,” said priest S Ramaji, a leading force in Hindraf. “People feel responsible because their families are also suffering because they raised legitimate issues. We feel they are being punished for speaking up for us.”<\/p>\n

These and other grievances have gripped the Indian community like a fever. It’s immediate effect would be a substantial loss of Indian support for BN and gain for the opposition political parties. Whatever the outcome on Saturday, the Hindraf fever is unlike to retreat<\/span> for many years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well,\u00a0I\u00a0don’t have much\u00a0info on IPF, so can’t comment on them. But I have seen IPF posters at a few places.\u00a0Even saw IPF supporters during\u00a0nomination day in Klang.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[130,21,109,24],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-election-2008","tag-hindraf","tag-ipf","tag-mic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}