Although Indian publications were slow to catch up with the developments vis-à-vis those of Indian ancestry in
The Tamil media has especially been quick to express solidarity with the suffering Indo-Malaysians and have in the past few weeks systematically drawn attention to the problems facing the community. While most writers and speakers have lamented the lack of unity among the community, one cannot help wonder if the reportage in Indian publications will not drive the existing divide among the community further.
While the English language publications have been using the term Malaysian Indians or ‘Indo-Malaysians’, the term coined by Wikipedia in the wake of the Nov 25 protest, almost all Tamil publications have used the term ‘Tamils’ to refer to those of Indian descent in Malaysia. Among the ethnic groups that comprise Malaysia, Malaysians of Indian descent comprise about 7 per cent of the population and include Hindus, Christians and Muslims. Significantly, about 85 per cent of this group is Tamil.
It is perhaps the sizeable Tamil population that has prompted publications to use Tamils as synonymous with Indians, but the fact remains that the Tamil-speaking Malaysians share their plight with other linguistic groups of Indian descent and as some point out, even with some non-Indian minorities. Among those of Indian descent are also Telugus and Malayalees who are looked upon by the Malaysian government as of Indian descent and treated so. Incidentally, the Punjabis fall under the category of ‘other’.
Most publications that have been quick to place the events in Malaysia in the framework of the volatile situation in neighbouring Sri Lanka seem to be doing more harm than good, for the Indo-Malaysians are now forced to, among other charges, ward off associations with the Tamil Tigers. The stray incidents of lawlessness in a largely peaceful procession holding aloft a poster of Mahatma Gandhi is now treated as an assertion of ‘Tamilness’, rather than as a community’s demand for equality.
Speaker after speaker in the popular Tamil magazine, Kumudam’s web TV, referred passionately to the plight of the Tamil brethren in the neighbouring countries, of the hardships they undergo, the denial of rights and the dismissal conditions they live in. Political party leaders seemed to be indicating that the Tamils were singled out for persecution wherever they went, quite forgetting that in
Film director Seeman held forth on the loss of unity among the Tamils and the fragmentation of the community along religious lines and attributed the current problem to giving up "Tamil identity" quite oblivious to the fact that the Tamil language by itself is no issue in
While it is expected of politicians to evoke it, the alacrity with which the vernacular media play the language card is indeed surprising. While affinity based on language is to be expected and perhaps even encouraged, bestowing a linguistic identity based on the language spoken by the majority of the population is surely a dangerous precedent.