E Contrario

Both my workplaces—Brickfields and Sentul—have high concentration of Indian residents and businesses. Traffic jam, congestion, crowded shoppers have been part of the annual feature for Brickfields and Sentul during the Hindu festive season.

The narrow streets of Brickfields were extremely congested. The stalls would play loud Tamil and Hindi musics all day and made great Deepavali mood.

The Festival of Light this year was a neglected event. A few days before Deepavali, a Hindu temple was violently demolished. Many people lament over the destruction of the temple, as it was symbolic of the faith.

My concern is more than a temple. Umno, the country’s longest ruling party held its Annual Assembly during the festive season. The arrangement might well be logistic and technical. But it reflects a neglect, or ignorance. Though Umno has no Hindu members and has no intention to represent the interests of the Hindu, it still a party that governs a population of different ethnicities. Yet by continuing the assembly during the festival, it meant the Umno leaders and members were not interested in interacting with Hindu friends or colleagues.

Samy Vellue was fast to seize the opportunity to hit back at the culturally insensitive Shah Alam Council. But the issue is more than a temple. It indicates a rapid diminishing of Indian political influence. Initially MIC branches announced a nationwide cancellation of all Deepavali open houses to protest against the disrespectful act of local authorities. This decision was reverted within a day due to BN pressure.

The arrogance of Umno in BN seems to have no boundary. This is also because the Umno leadership and its alliance in BN are so confident that vast majority of Indian are poor and could be easily bought with peanuts during general election. Instead of greeting our Indian community “Happy Deepavali”, Umno delegates in PWTC greet “We don’t give a damp about you Indian!”