The reason I have been
so silent is not because I have nothing to say. It is because I have no time to
say it.
But then again, this
is not entirely true because I am one of those who believe in making time for
something you really want to do. But realistically, even when your mind is
still up for it, sometimes your body just tells you to relax and watch some frivolous
tv program to unwind and relax.
In 2021 I took on a
new job which was a double jump for me: from private sector to government
(where you need to fill up about 50 forms if you want to turn left, another 50 forms
if you want to turn right, and yet another 50 forms if you want to go straight
ahead; which is something I am not used to at all), and to something totally
different from what I was doing before, which means that I needed to learn
everything from scratch. In other words, in this new job, I was a totally
new-born baby but already they were expecting me to fly. Forget fly. Traverse
the galaxies. And even that is apparently not enough. Why only galaxies? You need
to traverse the universe. 🙄
But I digress. That is
a story for another time. Today I want to vent about my ancestors who helped
build Malaysia to what it is today, but are under-appreciated and ignored to a
large extent. I had the privilege of reading this book which I happened upon by
chance in an Indian restaurant, entitled ‘The Malaysian Indian: Forgotten
History of the Colonial Era’ by Janakey Raman Manickam. This book traced the
history of Indians (from India and Sri Lanka – I am both) who came to Malaysia
by their own free will before British colonization, and then through mass
migration under the British rule.
Under the British
rule, they arrived as indentured labourers, and were deployed into various
sectors most prominently in agriculture (rubber and tea), were made to clear
jungles, and were subsequently involved in the building of roads, railways,
utility services (electricity and water), armed forces, police, drainage and sewerage,
telecommunications, harbours, postal service, quarries and omnibus companies. Ceylonese
Tamils who could speak English became government officers and clerks. From the
19th and early 20th century right up until independence,
Indians dominated the major exports of Malaysia (rubber, oil palm, coconut and
tea) and they were heavily involved in the public works sector not only as
builders of roads, railways, harbours etc but also as drivers, conductors,
soldiers, etc. If there is anyone out there who thinks any of this is easy, I challenge
you to work 8 to 12 hours a day under the hot Malaysian sun to lay tar on roads;
to build railways; to clear Malaysian jungles to reach highlands.
This is unfortunately
what some people had to say about Indians:
H.F.N. Witherby, a British
planter in Malaysia categorized the ethnic Tamils as:
‘a poor specimen, both in
physique and morally, and of being abject, cowardly, and generally lacking in vitality… the Tamils, one
and all had a half starved look about them, and
seemed to be thoroughly dissatisfied with their lot in life… the blind
admiration for the white man
by these Tamils is really rather pathetic.’
In 1887, Sir Frederick
Weld warned of over dependence on Chinese labour as problematic. He suggested
migration from India, because the ‘Indians are a peaceable and easily
governed race.’ This was supported by the Colonial Administrator Sir Thomas
Hyslop: ‘We want Indians as indentured labourers not as free men.’
According to Kernial
Singh Sandhu:
‘The South Indian labourer was
preferred because he was malleable, worked well under supervision, and was easily manageable. He was not as
ambitious as most of his Northern Indian
compatriots and nothing like the Chinese… he was the most amenable to the comparatively lowly paid and
rather regimented life of estates and government departments. He had fewer qualms or religious susceptibilities, such
as aversion to crossing to kalapani
(literally, lack water; figuratively, crossing the seas to foreign lands which causes the loss of one's social respectability, as well as the putrefaction of one's cultural character and posterity) and food taboos… and
cost less in feeding and maintenance.’
This book was a real
eye-opener for me. I now understand why some Indians feel displaced,
under-appreciated, forgotten. Seen objectively, Malaysia will not be where it
is today without the help of Indian labourers. We quietly and unassumingly formed
the backbone of this nation. And what did we get in return? Citizenship. Is
this enough?
I think any right-minded
person will tell you this is insufficient for the amount of effort put in to
build a nation to what it is today. But that is not the saddest part of this
story. The saddest part is this. It still continues to this very day. When in need
of sheer hard work and for someone who can get the job done, look for an Indian.
When in need of someone to give recognition or a promotion to, look for someone
else other than an Indian. Because in the end, the Indian will not complain. Because
Indians are malleable, compliant, peaceable.
Unfortunately, the blood
of my ancestors runs in my veins so I cannot deny my heritage. For the most
part, this is true. When faced with conflict, in a situation of fight or
flight, we tend to choose flight because fight is the last resort. Contrary to
whatever said about Indians, I do not think this is a weakness. In fact, I
think it is the opposite – flee in order to survive which in the bigger scheme
of things (re: Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene), is a strength.
But at the same time,
I am no longer blind to the injustice that is happening in my own country. I am
one person; I am not an army, so the best I can do is fight for myself. As an
Indian. As a Malaysian. As a human being. No more running. A very dear
colleague of mine who I look up to in every which way told me to be careful
because ‘they always need Indian Gurkhas to do the work while the credit goes elsewhere’.
No more. Time to
fight. Whatever the consequence. Because as much as I am ‘malleable and pliant’,
I am also the descendant of the empires that once ruled South East Asia and
were responsible for the temples in Kedah, Indonesia and Cambodia. Give me your
best shot. I am now ready.
