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©The Straits Times, Singapore (Used by permission)
by Leslie Lopez, South-east Asia Correspondent

Apology for temple demolition may stop erosion of support for govt, say analysts

'The demolition should not have been carried out a week before Deepavali. The relevant authorities could have postponed it one or two months. This was wrong on their part. We are sorry for that.' -- Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak (left), on the destruction of a temple in a village outside Klang in November last year.

A RARE public apology by the Malaysian government over the demolition of a Hindu temple may help staunch anti-establishment sentiment among the country's Indians ahead of nationwide polls, analysts say.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak on Sunday told a huge gathering of Indian community representatives that the destruction of a temple in a village outside Klang in November had been unfortunate.

'The demolition should not have been carried out a week before Deepavali. The relevant authorities could have postponed it one or two months,' Datuk Seri Najib told senior leaders of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), the chief representative of the community in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition government.

'This was wrong on their part. We are sorry for that,' said the Deputy Prime Minister, whose comments were splashed across the front pages of Malaysia's three Tamil-language dailies yesterday.

He also pledged to ensure the orderly relocation of temples built on private property.

At the same time, he promised that the government would address several issues of concern to Indians, highlighted by MIC chief Samy Vellu at the party's special one-day convention on Sunday.

He also gave the assurance that more Indians would be taken into the civil service, more university scholarships would be available to the community and financial help would be given to its businessmen.

With nationwide polls expected to be called by the end of next month, the government is wooing ethnic Indians like never before.

The majority of Indians, who make up 8 per cent of the country's roughly 22 million people, have long been strong supporters of the BN government.

But that has been thrown into question after the harsh crackdown by police when thousands of Indian protesters took to the streets last November, alleging discrimination against the community.

The subsequent arrests of key leaders of the protest movement, known as Hindraf, under tough Malaysian security laws, opened the lid on long-held frustrations over alleged economic and social neglect.

The majority of the country's Indians are devout Hindus and the demolition of the Klang temple pushed simmering anger to outright hostility, say analysts.

Senior government politicians say concerns over how the Indian community will vote became more serious last month, when the annual turnout for the Hindu festival of Thaipusam dropped sharply at Kuala Lumpur's Batu Caves temple.

Since then, government leaders, including Premier Abdullah Badawi, have openly acknowledged that Indian support could fall.

'The Indians have never been this anti-government. There is a real need to address the problems facing the community. This is no election gimmick,' said a close associate of PM Abdullah.

Although there is no single parliamentary or state assembly seat where Indian voters constitute a majority, they will play a crucial role in the elections.

This is because anti-establishment sentiment among the Chinese community is also high, thanks to unhappiness over the lack of economic opportunities.

Meanwhile, Malay support, although strong, cannot be taken for granted, as many of the rural poor are suffering from the sharp spikes in the cost of living, analysts say.

And some analysts wonder if the government's wooing of the Indian community, coupled with widely perceived anti-establishment sentiment among the Chinese, could prompt Malays to vote against non-Malay BN candidates.

Should such a scenario emerge, the coming polls will show an extremely polarised Malaysia, they say.

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