Letter : Malaysian Indians And Reasons of Their Problems

Append below Letter from Reader, which may not reflect the true opinion or views of MP Kapar. The Letter posted unedited expect contact number of the writer.

Dear YB,

As I’ve promised earlier, today I would like to share my opinion about Malaysian Indians And The Actual Reason Behind Their Problems I strongly believe if we can correct our previous mistake, it will be the turning point for our Malaysian Indian’s future. It’s very long e-mail so please make sure that you’re really free to continue reading this e-mail and if you feel more comfortable with a cup of coffee or tea then may be you should get a cup of tea or coffee.

To be honest to you, on 16/07/08 I’ve sent this e-mail to our brother who’s in UK. I’m sure you know who I’m reffering to.

Actually I was thinking to write about it and send it to as many Indians as I can reach and ask their favour to forward it to the attention and consideration of all their Indian friends. Probably you might support the idea or may be against it like most of other ordinary Indians see it. Anyway allow me to explain about it in more details but before that PLEASE FORGIVE ME because my explanation is regarding one of the most sensetive topic among the Malaysian Indians and might hurt the feeling.

From my observation, the CORE for the entire problems that we Malaysian Indians esspecially for those in the middle and low income groups facing are created by TAMIL SCHOOL. May be you might shock to hear this but I will explain it in detail why and how Tamil School is the root cause for the entire problems that we Indians are facing here in Malaysia.

The “poison” statement “WITHOUT THE TAMIL SCHOOL EXISTING IN MALAYSIA, TAMIL LANGUAGE WILL DIE OFF” already been “injected” into all Indians MIND esspecially into Tamilians mind for more than 50 years by 2 well known groups. The first group is Malaysian Indian Politicians, I’m sure you know who I meant by Malaysian Indian Politician and the second group is the Tamil School Teachers and Headmasters.

Malaysian Indian Politicians

As we all know that most of our (former) Malaysia Indian Politicians are very cunning type of people and all they know is to swindle the Allocated Funds for Indians Welfare in Malaysia. As every of us know well, the most popular subject for this allocated funds matter are Tamil School, Education, Temple and so on. The No.1 “capitol” or “modal” for this Indian Politician to make use the “opportunity” is the Tamil School matters and followed by others matters. If I’m not mistaken recently Government has allocated RM120 million for Tamil School. Whether that money fully will reach Tamil School or not, the money surely need to pass through this politicians hand before reach to Tamil School. The rest I think I no need to explain, you know very well what will happened.

All of us will agree that eventhough after 50 years of independent the standard and the condition of many Tamil School remained the same like how it were before independent. So even after 50 years of independent the condition of many Tamil School remain unchanged, so what make you think that in next 50 years it will change positively, esspecially with all the “Crocodile” (former) Indian Politician around???

In your opinion are they really want this Tamil School problem to be solved? Well, think again. As I mentioned earlier, Tamil School subject is the “capitol” for thier “business” so do you think they want this problem to be solved? As an eye wash they will do their “acting” by voicing this topic here and there but deep in their heart they’re happy because with the existing of this Tamil School problem they can continue earning from generation to generation.

Tamil School Teachers and Headmasters

As for them, the matter is very straight forward. In their opinion without Tamil School, there’s NO JOB for them. Sometimes they also are involved in Politic as well. So to protect their interest (rice bowl), they also will spread the news that “Without Tamil School Existing In Malaysia, Tamil Language Will Die Off “, it’s purely because of their selfishness. In Indian society Teachers and Doctors are well respected people so whatever they said it’s equally like God’s statement. So because of that, the poison statement already been buried long ago into the mind of our great grand father to grand father, grand father to father and from father to son. So in another word it’s like advice from God, so how you expect an ordinary Indian to go against it…. These teachers and headmasters forgot that their service is also needed in the ordinary school (Sekolah Kebangsaan). So to have their “own kingdom” in place they don’t mind to support the idea eventhough some Tamil School building structure counting the day to collapse.

On every Monday and Wednesday’s Vizhutugal Programme (Astro 201) there will be a newspaper segment and almost in all this newspaper segment there will be a topic about problems faced by Tamil Schools all around Malaysia. Trust me it’s the same old problems which is not been solved and will not be solved in near future.

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Now lets go to more realistic topic regarding Tamil School.

There are 3 groups of Indians in Malaysia involved directly or indirectly with our education system and they’re a) Very Very Rich b) Earning >< $5000 and c) Earning >< $1000.

a) Very Very Rich

This is the smallest group of Indian and to be honest, I have nothing much to comment about them because I’m very sure that they know what they’re doing and know how to manage their problem. Probably all their kids will be graduates from overseas and automatically jobs will be waiting for them.

b) Earning >< $5000

Probably they’re the biggest group or second biggest group and probably facing difficulty to survive equally in Malaysia. It’s because they are not rich and at the same time they’re also not poor. Some of them will send their kids to Sekolah Kebangsaan and some will send to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan. If they send their kids to Tamil School, most of the time their kids can score well because their parents has the knowledge to guide and at the same time they’re financially capable to send their kids for tuition classes. So changes for their kids to be a successful person is great. If they can’t find a suitable job locally they always have a better option at overseas.

c) Earning >< $1000

Probably they also can be the biggest group or second biggest group and probably facing the worst nightmare to just survive. It’s because they’re financially and educationally down from generation to genaration. They just earn their living by doing any type of job and most of the time they’re doing more than one job just to survive. This is the area where TAMIL SCHOOL plays its part directly and indirectly in the life of the people from this low income group.

The poison statement ” WITHOUT THE TAMIL SCHOOL EXISTING IN MALAYSIA, TAMIL LANGUAGE WILL DIE OFF works perfectly in the mind of this group because as I mentioned earlier that they’re educationally and financially down from generation to generation so thier IQ level is very low and these 2 groups (Politician and Teacher) easily can exploit this situation for their personal benefit.

Just for the sake to send their kids to school they will send their kids to Tamil School and hardly can guide them, tuition class is totally unimaginable for these kids because their parents can’t effort. So most of these kids will go to school because of their friends circle are at that school and since they already in the school they will study. After few years they need to go to secondary school and there is where their worst nightmare going to start. Once in the secondary school, language wise they’re handicap because now they need to communicate in Bahasa Malaysia and automatically they become like a stranger in that school where majority of the students are from other races.

Like it or not, now they need to continue their studies in BM and due to their weake or minus point in BM they won’t be able to follow what their teachers are teaching and as a result they couldn’t score well or fail most of their monthly class exam and Government examination as well. So what’s next……. Since they don’t have a good result in their examination they can’t get a good job and of course their parents also can’t effort to send them continuously to study. So now onwards these kids going to face the actual unknown future and need to struggle to survive again as the member from the financially and educationally down generation to generation group.

At this point may be someone will try to deny my point by saying that there are still Tamil School students from low income group but doing well in their exam by getting 10A1, 9A1, 8A1 and so on. I totally agree with that BUT how many of them are doing well. Out of 1000 students from Tamil School base probably 5 to 10 percent will be getting good result. I’m not worry about this 5 to 10 percent BUT my worries is on the remaining 90 to 95 percent Indian students that almost none of them having a good future. How about them, what they’re going to do for the rest of their lifetime? This is what I’m worrying.

Since they need to survive, this remaining 90 percent will try to get any type of jobs that they can get with the low qualification that they have. Jobs like Factory Workers, General Cleaners, Construction Workers, Lorry/Bus Drivers and Security Guards will be the types of job that these students will get.

Out of this 90 percent some will be “choosing” or “forced” to choose some different type of jobs and that jobs will be related to Gangsterism, Killing, Robbers, Kidnapping, Hijacking, Drug Pusher, Con Man, Snatch Thief and so on and most of them will be an Alcoholic. At the end of the day most of them will become the victim to the police bullets. Trust me, personally I don’t like to write this paragraph but I have no choice because like it or not this is the actual facts. If some one have the access to the police record then they will know that most of the Malaysian Indian arrested or shot by police are ex-Tamil School students. Few years back I still remember reading an article that Indian population is Malaysia was 2.5 million but today the number has decreased to 1.8 million, so what happened to the balance 700,000 Malaysian Indians??? Besides migrated and died because of old age, many of them died because of a)Alcohol b) Drug, c) Gangsterism d) Police Bullets and at last but not least many of them already became Permanent Resident in the prison.

Why they fall into these groups or choosen this type of live where definitely there is no future? In many situation the answer is because they couldn’t find a job easily like other youngsters from other races. Further more they probably don’t have enough academical qualification to apply for a decent jobs. The situation become more worse with the pressure from the parents which at the end these youngsters find the short cut way for their survival. Honestly speaking none of them ever dreamed that their life will end up horribly like that. In 70′s and 80′s we can be proud that lot of our Indians were doing very well in sports but today situation is the other way around. The moment we see any negative news in newspaper we start to wondering and worried that the incident probably involving Indians. In another word, percentage of Indians involved in crime activities are very high compare to other races.

So now, who to blame? What is the root cause of this problem? Eventhough those Politicians and Teachers are the instigators of the problem, don’t you think Tamil School is the actual root cause of the problem? As a Tamilian, here I would like to say something firmly… I’m not against TAMIL LANGUAGE but I don’t agree with the Tamil School concept because indirectly it’s the “factory” that “manufacturing” “products” for the police to test their shooting accuracy.

I’m 200 percent very sure about Tamil School matter because personally my family also directly effected. My late father was working as a school gardener with RM330 as his salary in 80′s, I’m the elder son and I have 2 younger sisters. My father sent me and my first sister to Sekolah Kebangsaan and my second sister to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (T). RM330 is not to enough to run a family of five, so my father has to go for a second job and to support my father my mother also worked as a part time house maid in two houses. Still my parents couldn’t effort to send us to tuition classes and besides that many other problems that we’ve faced due to poverty. The most sad part was that me and my sisters as the growing kids almost never had any opportunity to spend with my father because he has to wake up earlier than us to go to work and once reached home he will get ready and go out for his second job and returned home after we all went to bed.

Only myself able to complete the SPM wherelse my both sisters failed their SRP. Me and my sister from Sekolah Kebangsaan able to cummunicate in Malay quite well and able to handle many official things but my sister from Tamil School, not able to cummunicate well and cannot handle any official things. There for she always needs our assistance in almost all her matters. So this is what generally will happen to Tamil School students who’re from low income families.

Some Indians who don’t understand exactly our Indian problem always will try to compare with the Chinese and Chinese School. As for them I would like to say something. Chinese economy or financial level are many many times better than us. Further more their language is Commercial Language similar like English and according to the statistic Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world where there are 1,075,000,000 people speaking this language worldwide followed by English with 514,000,000 and Hindi 496,000,000.

In China, if let say one Chinese guy from north, one from south, one from west and one from east meet at one place, in your opinion what will be the language probably used by them to communicate? I think all of you will agree if I say they probably will use Mandarin to communicate. If the same situation happened in India, in your opinion what will be the language used by that 4 Indians from north, south, west and east? I think you’ll agree if I say either English or Hindi. So if you agree with me on this then I’m sure you will agree if I say that there is no point comparing Chinese and Chinese School with Indian and Tamil School in Malaysia because it’s two diffirent situations. I’m not sure what is the exact rank for Tamil in that list but definetely not in the top ten list. Anyway I’ve attached the Top Ten Most Spoken Language in the world together with this e-mail.

So no point of comparing Tamil one to one with other language such as Mandarin or English asspecially in Malaysia BUT as a Tamilian I strongly believe every Tamilian should be able to read, write and talk in Tamil fluently. In the bigger picture every Tamil student ATLEAST must be able to speak, read and write fluently in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Tamil and if possible in other commercial language as well. So for that, what should we do???

Our schooling method need to be changed. Definitely with the Tamil School concept it’s hard to achieve that. With the current Sekolah Kebangsaan concept also it’s quite difficult to achieve it. What we need is to have a new method of schooling where Mother Tonque is a COMPULSARY subject from standard one till form five or form six and it’s encouragable if it can be extended in Universities. Mother Tonque exam marks need to be treated equally like Bahasa Malaysia. If fail Mother Tonque or getting lower marks, the situation has to be same like how if we failed or getting lower marks in Bahasa Malaysia. If this schooling method become reality, the 90 percent of the students that I’ve mentioned earlier won’t suffer as how they are suffering now because if they have a good command in English they can go anywhere in the world to get a job but at this moment they’re stranded here because lack of knowledge and not fluent in English.

Trust me, it’s not that our local Indian Politician didn’t know about it but purposely they won’t let it happen because if that kind of education system become reality they’re the one who lost badly because they no longer can use the Tamil School topic to swindle the allocated funds from the Government for Indian Community’s welfare where Tamil School topic are one of the main agenda. According to some old friends many years back there were some genuine Malaysian Indian Politician ever brought up this matter but the other powerful “crocodile” Malaysian Indian Politicians put a full stop sarcasticly for that topic and has condemned that genuine politician.

Once in a while we will hear one very famous question been raised in Tamil tv/radio programmes and the question is ” TAMIL SORRE PODUMA” or in English, whether professionally we can live or survive with Tamil? If this question been raised to a Tamil School Teachers, Tamil News Reporters and Tamil TV/RADIO presenters of course the answer is YES but if the same question been raised to the other professionals such as Engineers, Lawyers, Manager, Doctors, Pilots and others then the answer definitely will be NO.

I just got to know that there are only 1.2 percent of Indian Staffs in Government sectors in Malaysia while our population is 7.8 percent.

There is another important thing that I must mention here. Suppose if the island with name of Singapore doesn’t exist on the map or didn’t located just 1.5 km from Johor Bahru and can’t be reached through land, honestly speaking I don’t know what will happened to the survival of tens probably hundreds thousand of our Malaysian Indians. In another word, indirectly Singapore has absorbed and has reduced Malaysia’s actual responsibility to provide jobs to all its citizen. There are lot of Malaysian Indian working in Singapore in all the sectors such as Doctors, Teachers, Professor, Principle, Engineers, Architect, Managers, Bankers, Media, Pilot, Air Stewart, Air Stewardess, Nurses, Clerk, Hotel Line, Drivers, Shipping Line, Shipyard, Construction, Factory Workers, Shopping Centre Staffs, Security Guards and so on. We have to thank to God and to Singapore otherwise these Malaysian Indian and their families going to face lot of difficulties and the crime rate and social problem which Malaysian Indians going to contribute will be much much more higher compare to the current rate.

These are the explanation that I’ve sent to our brother in UK.

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Now I would like to add one more incident to support my comment and it just happened on last Sunday (30/11/08). One of my best friend called me and asked me to come to his place (about 8 km from my house). Once I reached to his house we started to chit chat for a while then he asked me a favour to help fill up one job application form for his younger brother who was looking for a job in Singapore. Basically it was a simple form but his younger brother didn’t know to fill up the form and I was thinking that he was a primary school drop out.

So, I’ve started to fill up the form while his younger brother sitting infront of me to provide the requested information. So after about 10 minutes filling up that form, it reached to a column where the education information is needed. I’ve asked him and he gave the answer that his primary education was from a Tamil School and continued his secondary until SRP in Sekolah Kebangsaan. So my next question to him was, why he couldn’t fill up that form and his answer was that he didn’t know how to fill up the form because he didn’t understand what was required in that form.

So in this case who to blame??? YB, don’t you agree that this guy belong to the 90 percent ex-Tamil School students that I’ve mentioned earlier??? So how we are going to solve this problem PERMANENTLY??? In medical term, there is one statement “PREVENT IS BETTER THEN CURE” So how we are going to prevent this type of situation permanently in future??? As I’ve suggested earlier, the only way we can get rid of this problem permanently is by having a better education system and for that we have no choice besides get rid of Tamil School type of education and replace it with an education system where all the students regardless of their race study in one school AND the Mother Tonque must be a compulsory subject till the higher level. Not to forget, English also MUST be taught in a better system compare to the current situation.

ONLY by doing that, our students will get a better quality education, able to mix around, better schooling environment and able to master Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mother Tonque.

I really hope all the PKR, DAP and PSM YBs and others will sit together and will seriously consider my suggestion. Our society is financially down so at this point of time ONLY a better education system prefably with some additional skill certificate will help to solve the Malaysian Indian Problem.

I wish my e-mail will reach to the attention of:-

a) YB. Prof. Ramasamy.

b) YB. R.Sivarasa.

c) YB. N.Gobalakrishnan.

d) YB. Dr.Xavier.

e) YB. S Manikavasagam.

f) YB. M.Kula Segaran.

g) YB. Charles Santiago.

h) YB. Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj

I)  Dato’ Siva Subramaniam

j)  Datuk Dr.Denison Jayasooria.

k) Any other important person

That’s all for now and if more explanation is needed, please feel free to write to me. My e-mail id is: muthaiah_alagappan2atyahoodotcom and my handphone number is 019-754x xxx. Hope to hear from you soon. Till then have a nice day,

warm regards