INTRODUCTION

Formal political representation in the ruling coalition of the Barisan Nasional or National Front (BN) is organized on the basis of ethnicity. Such a principle is not something unique to Malaysia. There are many other societies that follow this method. However, not all ethnically differentiated societies adopt ethnicity as the guiding principle for political governance. This chapter argues that political representation on the grounds of ethnicity is not without merits; in many countries such a formula is quite effective in addressing the cultural and political concerns of different ethnic groups. However, ethnicity ceases to be of any political value if ethnic groups in a country do not enjoy equal rights and opportunities. More specifically it will be shown that Indians, one of the significant ethnic groups in Malaysia, do not seem to benefit from ethnic representation within the BN. It will be discussed that the present weakness of ethnic representation of Indians is related to the way politics is organized within the BN under the domination of United Malay National Organization (UMNO). It is the hegemonic role of UMNO in championing the political, economic and cultural interests of Malays that have excluded non-Malay ethnic groups such as Indians from effective political participation. In multi-ethnic countries where one dominant ethnic party dominates other political parties is described by Ian Lustick (1979) as the control model of politics. Thus, the relationship between the various component parties in the BN under the domination of UMNO quite resembles the control model of politics as suggested by Lustick.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE

In Malaysia, the often used concept of Indian is employed primarily to describe Malaysians of Indian descent, those who migrated to the country during the time of the British colonial rule in the late eighteenth and early twentieth century (Sandhu 1969; Arasaratnam 1979; Rajeswary 1981). Although Indians primarily came to work in plantations and urban sectors, a segment of Indians, mostly non-Tamils came to work as clerks and supervisors in colonial establishments.