There seems to be an impression floating around in public that the villagers are ‘greedy’ and ‘ungrateful’. They did not win any favours by opting to turn to Umno and MIC for help, while hitting out at present Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng when the greater blame should have decidedly been laid at the door of former Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon.

One typical response is reflected in this comment by Malaysiakini reader Jeremy Tankh:

“After 52 years of independence and we are getting more & more racist. So what if there is no High Chaparral? So what if there is a Hindu temple in Sec. 23????

The rest of my article will try to address Jeremy’s rhetorical questions.

Cowed by development

If there is no High Chaparral, then the Indians there would have lost their traditional way of life.

Yesterday’s Malaysiakini report on the villagers agreeing to move out said, “By 2011, condos worth a minimum RM240,000 would finally stand tall on the [High Chaparral] land …???. So much of Penang island has already been swamped by these condos, particularly on the Tanjung Bungah hillslopes; in reality these buildings stand not proud but squashed, and sardine packed.

Where is the place under the sun for Indians who herd cows in this new schematic?

According to the same Malaysiakini report, company director of Nusmetro Venture – the developer that is evicting the villagers – Thomas Chan said “the cattle breeder would have to find his own solution to end his predicament???.

Mr Chan’s unconstructive dismissal is one of a piece with his lofty position, coming from his high vantage point.

Yet a similar opinion was shared with me by a waged conveyancing (one who drafts property S&P agreements) lawyer on why the villagers should accept the developer’s deal. Again, a pragmatic Penangite speaking.

I couldn’t help blurt my reaction – “But where will they keep their cows???? to that lawyer who was advocating the much-vaunted Penang trait of bending to expediency. No doubt, the Indian families might later occupy the link houses provided as compensation, but they would have lost their means of livelihood.

Are people ‘greedy’ just because they love the ground beneath their feet?

If I had a time machine, I’d travel back to my childhood home and hug every single tree we once had in our huge compound – the ciku, belimbing, jambu, starfruit, soursop, mango and so many others. I was too young then to have an inkling of the deep sense of loss that I now feel for the place I no longer live in.

Lack of sympathy and empathy

In a respectable corner of cyberspace, I stumbled upon this comment: “These low caste villagers wanted to become instant millionaire.???

I also came across a series of comments by Malaysiakini reader Peter Tiang Chee Foon, who I think encapsulates the Penang mentality generally.

Peter wrote: “You have been squatting on state land for 200 years and now you want Pg state govt. to pay hundreds of millions of PENANGITES’ money to bail you out? You talk about justice, what is the justice to the rest of PENANGITES????

He also wrote: “I'm Penangite earning good [five-figure] salary, also don't dare to dream about owning a landed property in Penang. These KBP folks, not only squatting on state land for past 200 years, now offered a landed property and ex-gratia payment of another RM80k from state govt, still not satisfied.???

As a half-Penangite, below is my two sen. In the first place, Peter may have gotten the RM80k figure incorrect; the news reports I’ve read mention the sum as RM8,000 per family.

Secondly, and please correct me if I’m wrong, those villagers have been the victims of irregularity in both the land alienation, and financial transactions with regard to its transfer; as well as victimized by individuals vested with authority.

Therefore, the following outburst by Peter – and he’s far from alone in thinking along the line of, “You put yourself in this predicament, don’t need to pull the state government or anybody else into this. Try to stand on your own two feet for once in your life!!??? – is a misplaced and unduly harsh criticism.

Pulling together

Unless I’m mistaken, DAP’s appeal to Malaysian voters is premised on a socialist platform. At least, that was what I’d thought when I cast my ballot for that party in the last general election and in all the previous GEs I voted.

As someone who respects DAP sec-gen Guan Eng, I only wish that he’d tried a tad harder to right this wrong that occurred in his (and my) state, because at the end of the day, we cannot get away from the fact that a moral injustice, if not fraud, has been perpetrated on the villagers.

Nor should we lose sight of the bigger picture which is that of generational poverty – where Indians find it most difficult to break out of the inherited poverty cycle – affecting this marginalized minority the most.

For 52 years, the Indian community has been royally screwed by the Barisan Nasional government which has excluded them from affirmative programmes like Felda, and education opportunities like Mara … look at the deplorable condition of estate Tamil schools.

For 200 years (is it?), the forebears of the Kg Buah Pala villagers have been there in that same spot, and suddenly they’re called, cavalierly – ‘squatters’. Well, aren’t we all?

Back to Jeremy’s finger-pointing at Indians that “we are getting more and more racist. So what if there is no High Chaparral? So what if there is a Hindu temple in [Shah Alam's] Sec. 23????

Viewed through the eyes of the Tamil underclass, it is their culture, their religion, if not their very race and skin colour, that appear to be under siege. Kg Medan, the ‘cow head’ protest and other skirmishes hint at a troubling Indian-Malay axis of conflict among the lower socio-economic strata.

P. Uthayakumar recently told me how something I wrote in Kee Thuan Chye’s ‘March 8’ book struck a chord with him: “Hindu temples have held a central place in the hearts of the Indian community who built the shrines wherever they lay their hats. Worship was the balm that gave solace to their hard lives …???

To Jeremy’s statement, “So what if there is a Hindu temple in Sec. 23????, I return a question: “If there isn’t, so what does it say about the rest of us????