The proposed Bill on the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Act 1965 or Act 355 to be debated and voted in Parliament has such enormous and dangerous implications that some ministers like MIC president S Subramaniam seem to be totally unaware of these.
Apparently, it was reported that Subramaniam was not even aware that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government would indeed be tabling the bill in Parliament.
The question is how did he become a minister in charge of Indian affairs when he is not even aware of what is going in the country especially the acrimonious debate surrounding Act 355?
How can he claim he does not know whether the government will be tabling the bill or not? In fact, on numerous occasions Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government would take over the tabling of the proposed bill in Parliament.
The fact that the bill which was presented as a private member’s bill and was rushed to be tabled has been completely lost on Subramaniam. With a person like him heading the MIC and a so-called minister representing the Indians in the country, it is no wonder why members of the community are deserting the party in droves.
Subramaniam also remarked that once non-Malay component parties of the BN meet Prime Minister Najib Razak, they would make their stand on the controversial bill. However, according to him, in a meeting with Najib earlier, the party had already stated its stand. However, Subramaniam has never made known his stand to the Malaysian public in general and to the Indian community in particular.
We are aware that Subramaniam is not a leader who rose in the MIC through rank and file. He was “parachuted” into the party by former MIC leader, S Samy Vellu.
Even if he were weak and unsuited to head the MIC, surely knowing very well the serious implications of the proposed shariah courts bill, he would have made know his stand to the public. However he is still unwilling to move beyond the shadows of Najib. He is hoping that in the proposed meeting, he will be able to obtain some “assurances” that he can dish out to members of the Indian community.
Subramaniam might be a weak and pathetic leader of the MIC, but at the same time he knows very well that the days for the party to retain its existing seats may be difficult. He is truly afraid that some of the seats allocated to the MIC by BN might be taken away and passed to either the MyPPP or IPF or others.
He does not care much about the shariah bill, but he wants to ensure that MIC can at least retain the seats allocated in the last election. Therein lies his dilemma and why he will never be able to take a stand against the shariah bill.
Finally, Subramaniam like his colleagues in MCA and Gerakan is fully aware that Umno will rely more on PAS to obtain crucial Malay votes in the coming general election and that Chinese votes might not revert to BN. Given this, Najib intends to rely more on PAS rather than these non-Malay component parties in the BN.
It is just a matter of time before Najib says “goodbye” to the MIC.
P Ramasamy is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and Deputy Secretary-General of the DAP.
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