Editor’s Note: This is a good observation by staunch Indian/Hindu activist Arun Dorasamy who rebutted PKR deputy information chief I, Datuk Seri R. Ramanan, who recently highlighted the growing support for PKR among the Indian community.
The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Deputy Minister who is contesting the PKR vice-president post at the party’s national leadership polls on May 23 attributed such positive development largely to the MADANI government’s commitment to the community, including the largest-ever budget allocation in history.
The somehow open letter addressed to “YB Ramanan and other PKR leaders” by Arun who is also the legal unit director of Indian NGO Hindu Agamam Ani Malaysia is best read in its original form.
DO YOU truly believe your own statement that “Indian voters still firmly back PKR”?
Perhaps what you meant is that PKR’s Indian members – not the Indian voters – are still reluctantly standing behind the party. And even that’s debatable.
Let’s be clear and blunt: The party’s internal election turnout, grassroots feedback, and recent by-election results speak volumes about the disenchantment, disillusionment and disconnect.
The support you’re referring to isn’t grounded in current reality – it’s political self-deception or worse, strategic whitewashing.
Let’s look at the facts: PKR is virtually invisible on Hindu temple issues – be it desecrations, demolitions or unjust land disputes.
Not a word of outrage on the usage of “Kuil Haram” (illegal temples) by state agencies like Selangor’s RIBI (non-Islamic houses of worship).
Where is PKR’s intervention in the Tamil school re=location struggles? Where is your voice on matters pertaining to unilateral conversions, stateless Indians and education quotas (is matriculation) – issues where PMX Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the party have not only been silent but complicit?
Schooling sycophants
Where was this “firm Indian voter support” then at the recent Ayer Kuning by-election? On the contrary, Indian voter turnout and rejection told a very different story.
Even MIC – widely dismissed in the past – seems more vocal on Hindu issues than current Indian leaders in PKR.
PKR’s Indian MPs and senators today are largely voiceless, visionless and in many cases, willing followers of the mainstream narrative – not champions of community dignity or constitutional rights.
You claimed that the Indian support to PKR remains “strong.” Really?
If I as an ordinary civil advocate were to host a forum on the subject of Hindu temples, education rights or youth empowerment, it would draw more grassroots support than a PKR townhall on reformasi”.
That’s not arrogance – it’s a reflection of the ground sentiment. Let’s not gaslight the community.
It’s fine for a political party to be weak and in decline but it’s intellectually dishonest to paint a false picture just to please the party hierarchy or secure political survival.
I previously worked on your campaigns. I regret the time, effort and resources spent. Many of us once believed in reformasi. What we got instead was re-packaged politics, muted MPs and selective struggles.
More than 40% of PKR’s Indian members are powerless. 60% of Indian voters are now politically homeless.
And your words just reminded them why. Grassroots Indians are not disengaged – they are disgusted. Because those they voted in to represent them have become party loyalists, not community defenders.
Adios Amigo…. – May 16, 2025
The above view first appeared on Arun’s Facebook page on May 14, 2025.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image credit: Vanakam Malaysa
