Of new hope and old biases

It’s Ponggal, a time when Indians, especially Tamils, believe hope springs anew. And Chinese New Year is around the corner. But there is little to be buoyant about with politicians doing things they shouldn’t.

IT’S Jan 14, a special time for Indians all over the world.

In much of Malaysia, Tamils will celebrate Thai Ponggal, the harvest festival, tomorrow with today being Bhogi, a day to burn all the miseries of the past.

In India, the festival goes by many names – from Makar Sankranti in the north to kichdi in Uttar Pradesh, Lohri and Maghi in Punjab – marking the end of winter and beginning of spring – and Makaravilakku in Kerala, when millions converge on the Ayappa temple in Sabarimala.

Everywhere, Hindus celebrate with vegetarian feasts, bonfires and bull runs (the ones with real bulls).

For Tamils, it’s a time when hope springs anew. When the cooked rice boils over, they believe their fortunes will too.

In Malaysia, hopes had been renewed with the promises from the new government, but it’s going to take more than boiling rice for problems to go away. While the bull runs are no more, there is still a lot of bull to deal with.

Indians here have a lot to overcome – education and business opportunities, scholarships, housing, discrimination in the workforce, and etc.

There’s also gangsterism. In September last year, police released a list of 30 most notorious gangsters and almost all were Indians.

They are involved in fights, drugs, extortion, petty theft and robberies. Hell, they are even putting firecrackers into coffins before cremations, just for the fun of it!

There is a lot that needs to be done to bring the community back to the mainstream. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, in his election campaign, admitted as much, saying Indians are among the most hardcore poor in the country and need to be helped.

However, the man appointed by the Deputy Prime Minister to handle Indian affairs, Ramesh Rao, has other things on his mind.

He wants the retail sale of alcohol throughout the country to be stopped at 10pm. There might be reasons to consider that. Drink driving, obviously, is one of them.

But is it an “Indian problem” that comes under his jurisdiction? Do only Indians drink? Certainly not.

While there may be an inordinate amount of alcohol consumption among Indian youths, this – along with gangsterism – is part of a bigger societal problem that needs a holistic approach to resolve.

The sale of alcohol, however, is a matter to be addressed by others, and they are already on it. And it’s not just about retail shops, but also bars, nightclubs and even the tuak and tapai that are easily available.

The police, for instance, have tightened laws on drink driving and we hear of many arrests – of various races – every other day.

Here are some statistics for Ramesh to mull over.

There were 69 fatalities in drink driving accidents between 2011 and July 2021 – a period of 10 years!

Compare that with the 4,634 traffic deaths in 2020, 4,359 in 2021 and 4,378 until September last year – a total of 13,371 fatal accidents in just under three years of the pandemic. Most, obviously, were caused by reasons other than alcohol.

Even if Ramesh gets the sale of alcohol banned after 10pm, there’s no stopping people buying booze earlier and drinking later. It could even spawn a new underground business.

Or worse, we may see a repeat of the Lunas moonshine incident in 1981 that left 31 dead.

Ramesh is obviously barking up the wrong tree here.

We have the police, enforcement agencies and local authorities, among others, to worry about the sale of alcohol and its effects.

Ramesh would do better to stick to his jurisdiction, which is the betterment of the Indian community. Maybe he should seek a meeting with the Prime Minister to learn what the community really needs.

Speaking of people not knowing their jurisdictions, there is this MP from PAS who thinks his job is to play moral police.

He has taken umbrage over the sale of beers in a mall in Seberang Jaya. The mall is a large one and the sale was done in a corner of the concourse.

A former colleague who was at the mall with his wife recently said he had not even noticed the event as he had other things to do.

Which is exactly what Turkish scholar Mustafa Akyol has to say. If it is none of your business, he says, look the other way.

He was talking about women in bikinis at a beach, but the same would apply to such sales in a mall.

The senior fellow at Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity also said “non-Muslims were free to consume alcohol in their quarters, and had taverns” even in many Islamic states of the past, such as the Ottoman empire.

Permatang Pauh MP Muhammad Fawwaz Mohamad Jan could have just averted his gaze and gone about his business. It’s not as if the whole concourse had been taken over or if the event was being held in Cherok To’ Kun, a Malay area under his constituency.

It was within a mall in Seberang Jaya, a cosmopolitan area bordering the Batu Kawan constituency.

He would do better to work on bringing development to his constituency. After all, the lack of development is what was cited as the reason for his surprise victory there.

The days of moral policing are over. Just look at Iran.

Even, CAP (Consumers’ Association of Penang), which is known for opposing the sale of so many things, has come up with a sound reply.

The sale in the mall is lawful, said its president Mohideen Abdul Kader. The mall has a permit from the state excise board to sell the beers and it is being done within its premises, not on the streets.

It is up to the local council and the state excise board to decide if there was something wrong in the promotion. It’s not for the local MPs to march in and make demands. He could, of course, bring it up at the Dewan Rakyat or with the council.

The beer sale only becomes offensive if alcohol is forced upon those who are against it. It was a Chinese New Year promotion meant for those who celebrate the occasion.

The rest should just ignore it and go about their own business, like that ex-colleague.

> The writer wishes all readers Happy Ponggal and Happy Chinese New Year. If you are drinking, do so in moderation and don’t drive.