This Parliamentary Roundtable on Indian youth gangsterism is most pertinent and timely, not only because the problem has become even more acute and serious in recent years but also because it has been two-decades in the making.
I remember that twenty years ago in April 1992, I had devoted my speech in the debate on the Royal Address in Parliament calling on the government to hear the cry of despair and hopelessness of the Malaysian Indians so as to address the fundamental problems confronting nation-building in Malaysia.
I had spoken of the growing sense of deprivation of the Malaysian Indians, who felt that the government had not been able to do much to improve the plight of the Malaysian Indian estate workers in particular and the Malaysian Indians in general.
For the increasingly displaced and alienated Indian estate workers, the alternative they faced in moving out of the estates was low-productivity jobs in the urban areas – which launched them on the vicious socio-economic cycle resulting in the very serious phenomenon of Indian youth gangsterism today, aggravated by poverty and long-standing socio-economic and educational marginalisation and discrimination.
The problem of Indian youth gangsterism has worsened in the past few years, underlined by the fact that the crime rate and the criminal involvement of Indian youths are completely out of proportion with their numbers and Indian percentage in the multi-racial Malaysian population.
We must aim at a two-prong major breakthrough to this problem, viz:
• Firstly, to convince all stakeholders and power-holders in the country that this is not just an Indian problem but a national problem; and
• Secondly, to break the back of the worsening problem of Indian youth gangsterism which needs a holistic approach involving socio-economic and educational dimensions.
Towards this objective, I would propose that the government set up a high-powered Commission of Inquiry, involving all sectors of Malaysian society, to highlight the causes and solutions to the problem as the first step to break the back of this worsening problem of Indian youth gangsterism in our country.
(Remarks by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Ipoh Timor Lim Kit Siang at the Parliamentary Roundtable on Indian youth gangsterism held at Parliament House on Thursday, 18th October 2012)
#1 by waterfrontcoolie on Thursday, 18 October 2012 - 5:15 pm
May be MIC can explain this development as they have been using such connections to expand their party expansion all these years. With Samy as the hero for over over 30 years, how could you blame the poor Indians for looking for such icon!
#2 by dagen wanna "ABU" on Thursday, 18 October 2012 - 5:52 pm
Let the indians learn english language and become proficient in it again. They, as a society, need the language badly in order to be able to crawl out of the black hole which umno had dug.
Then again listen here indians. You people gave all your nambekais to umno. Umno did not return them to you all. In fact umno gave them away to someone else, namely umnoputras – those Tuan Rempit McBullys. As a result you people now have no nambekais to give to anyone anymore.
#3 by monsterball on Thursday, 18 October 2012 - 6:03 pm
In 2012…it is noted more and more cheating from all sorts of trades and nature going …even cheating a best friend…or close relation….especially from the car repairing trade…and electrical services….like airconds and household hot water system.
That’s the sign of people getting poorer and poorer…ignoring honesty and reputation.
#4 by Loh on Thursday, 18 October 2012 - 6:07 pm
Even the blind knows that it is the by-product of NEP. Only UMNO leaders pretend to be both deaf and blind, to the problem. Of course Mamakthir decided long ago that it was beneficial for him to be Malay, and that was accepted by those who not only hijacked the race, but also the party which was supposed to work for the dignity and pride of the race.
#5 by monsterball on Thursday, 18 October 2012 - 6:07 pm
I was driven by an Indian taxi driver to Ampang Nine God Festival…and he told me he sent his taxi for a repair to his best friend repair shop…and he was billed RM2450 when it should be not more than RM1,200.
That is a case..a Malaysian Indian cheats a Malaysian Indian.
#6 by yhsiew on Thursday, 18 October 2012 - 6:36 pm
The Indian driver refused to use the meter while I was on board a taxi on one occasion.
#7 by Dap man on Thursday, 18 October 2012 - 6:54 pm
If you go through the Proclamation of Sale advertisements you will find 8 out of 10 properties (houses) uo for sale belong to Indians.
If the DAP conducts a study you will be able to prove what I am saying here.
And mind you, most of the houses are low-cost units and the “Defendants” are always husband and wife or two members of a family.
And MIC says Indians are returning to BN.
#8 by monsterball on Thursday, 18 October 2012 - 10:12 pm
Amongst the 3 major races Malaysian voters…Indian voters are most unreliable.
Their minds are weak …sensitive and can be ruled by emotions to swing their votes…here or there…for very cunning selfish reasons.
I think…their votes can be bought easily too.
It will be asking too much to rely on Malaysian Indian votes for change of Govt.
However….more and more are thinking right.
The 13th GE delay by Najib…is giving the Malaysian Indians more time to think and discuss amongst each other.
They love to discuss discuss discuss…and that’s no good for Najib…at all.
#9 by tuahpekkong on Thursday, 18 October 2012 - 11:26 pm
The problem is real and not merely raised to cause alarm. The profile of criminals has certainly changed over the past 20-25 years. Several years ago, a young man who quipped in Mandarin criticizing someone who was urinating in public was set upon and brutally killed because the killer knew what his victim had been uttering. I think the murderer is still at large. Catching the culprit and meting out punishment will only solve part of the problem. An indepth study of why so many young people turn to crimes is also necessary.
#10 by Bigjoe on Friday, 19 October 2012 - 7:38 am
The challenge of the uplifting of the Indian community is not a simple one..If you take the Singapore experience there is a lot of lessons to be learned and assumptions need to be cast aside.
It appears that the marginalisation looks similar to any traditional native societies even though the Indians are not native to this country..Perhaps its not so severe but it has a lot of the same characteristics.
Then there is the fact affirmative action, demanded as a solution by Indian rights group, in this country has full of myth in this country, complicating real solutioning..
However, there are something quite clear that should be done. Things such as free education all the way to tertiary level probably should have been implemented long time ago. Self-help fund need to be provided. English should be their main medium of education. Tamil schools are not like Chinese ones because the Chinese community have a long proud deep tradition of funding and self-sacrificing support of it.
The problems of the Indian community is highly complex. Unfortunately the UMNO-led govt is hopeless in solutioning it because they don’t even understand their own self-upliftment
#11 by sheriff singh on Friday, 19 October 2012 - 11:40 am
Samy Vellu says he has done so much for the Indian community. He got the Telekom (or Tenaga?) shares remember? Then he set up MIED, AIMST and that trust fund. Now he has gone to India to help the Indians there and here.
NAJ1B-gor says he has given thousands of scholarships to Indian graduates, training programmes, jobs, cheap housing (his Kg Buah Pala) etc under his Janji DiTepati programme. He built Little India. He even has an Indian guru. He and his father even visited Batu Caves. He never marginalised the Indians. All he asks is for their ‘nambikei’ so that he and BN can do much, much more.
So what more do the Indians want? They have been given paradise.
#12 by sotong on Friday, 19 October 2012 - 12:27 pm
You have bad ” leaders ” for decades.
Many knew where the country is heading and left in search of better environment and opportunity. But the ” leaders ” don’t care.
Everyone is for himself/herself, the society and country are secondary.
#13 by Cinapek on Friday, 19 October 2012 - 12:29 pm
“…Parliamentary Roundtable on Indian youth gangsterism held at Parliament House…”
It is encouraging to read that there is now a non partisan Parliamentary Roundtable to deal with this problem of gangsterism amongst Indian youths. It is time to call a spade a spade. For too long we have pussy footed and skirted around this issue for fear of its racial sensitivities.
Five years ago, off the record , an OCPD had confided that there is rising problem of violent crimes amongst Indian youths. Today this anti social behavior has manifested into public late night drinking bouts leading to frequent drunken brawls. At gated apartments and condos, these gangs, who are renting units there, would threaten and intimidate the security guards if they try to intervene to stop the late night drinking and fights. The police are powerless to act as no law is broken by these drinking sessions and any security guards who reports to the police would be threatened with bodily harm.
There must be an underlying reason for such belligerent anti social behaviour. Perhaps it is due to marginalisation, discrimination of citizenship or a feeling of a lost identity. Perhaps this roundtable can initiate the actions needed to understand and identify the root cause of these behavior in order to find the solutions.