Challenges Facing The Community
Despite the fact that the average income of Malaysian Indians exceeds that of their Malay counterparts, there exists a portion of the community who are poor and share less than 1.5% of Malaysia's wealth. Despite their obvious need, they are not eligible for any of Malaysia's lavish affirmative-action programmes, which are reserved for Malays and select indigenous people. These factors in part have resulted in the migration of many highly skilled Malaysian Indians abroad, where Indian migrants are largely upwardly mobile.
However, the underprivileged section of the community (along with the poor from other races e.g. ethnic Chinese) continue to be excluded from affirmative-action programmes despite their genuine need for support in obtaining employment, government subsidized education, and housing. This perception of a zero-sum game amongst the races has unfortunately fueled protests by frustrated sections of the hitherto quiescent community - who consequentially faced a heavy-handed response from the authorities. Recently, the Malaysian government has at least pledged to change this by increasing assistance to needy Malaysians regardless of race.
Read more about this topic: Malaysian Indian
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