Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu, the President of MIC looked very happy and smiling during the Thaipusam celebrations at Batu Caves on Friday when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak made his first official visit at about 9.10pm to greet devotees and well-wishers by annoucing that Malaysia respects all faiths and will seriously look at the plights of Indians, who claim that they have been marginalised.
The presence of more than a million people at Batu Caves clearly shows the commitment of the Indian community to Malaysia, while making Batu Caves a major tourist site that foreign tourist must visit when they are in Malaysia.
The MIC have been struggling to recapture the confidence of the Indians after their disastrous defeat during the March 8 general elections in 2008 where we saw Datuk Seri Samy and his strongmen losing at the elections.
Since then, Datuk Seri Samy had been actively trying to win the confidence of his Indian community by working closely with the grassroot.
Although after 'losing the power' Datuk Seri Samy have been trying his best to get the national BN leaders to recognise that the Indian community needs help and with the presence of PM Datuk Seri Najib, Datuk Seri Samy and his MIC could convince the Indians that the federal government is seriously looking at their grouses and have started providing incentives to raise the living standards of the Indian community in Malaysia.
Even the recent visit to India by Datuk Seri Samy and PM Datuk Seri Najib was disrupted by HINDRAF launching a smear campaign to demand that certain actions be taken by the Indian authorities if the Malaysian government did not address the local Indian grouses.
Indians may just comprise of 8% of the populace but at almost every voting area, the Indian votes are the crucial deciding votes as to who wins. Since this crucial status, and after having been negelected for so many years, Indians were force to 'openly' stage street demonstrations and hunger strikes to show that their plight had been negelected.
The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government does blame the MIC for negelecting their community but since they are a 'big' component partner, the government has decided to 'bail' them by offering special incentives that could uplift the community and also in order for the community to have continued trust and confidence in MIC to look into their grouses.
The most important and crucial question asked is : Have the Indians' confidence and trust towards BN and MIC recaptured.
The answer would not be an easy one to answer now. Time is needed since most of the grouses are still not fulfilled or in the implementation stage and the incentives have still not been fully materialised.
But one thing is noted, Datuk Seri Samy and his MIC are gaining grounds, but how effective it is, only time will tell.
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