INTRODUCTION

Self-help refers to any collective effort by a group experiencing the urge for self improvement. It could be for economic uplift, educational improvement, or to address social issues or even to safeguard and strengthen cultural and religious rights. The effort, usually, is the result of a consciousness among some members of the group that the only way left for improvement is to get together and work together. In many countries the minority ethnic groups are forced to organize self-help efforts when their hope for assistance from the state for socio-economic and cultural improvement fades. Like wise, in Malaysia the Indian community was driven to initiate a couple of efforts for its self improvement when its appeal to the government for assistance was not given due consideration. An attempt is made here to analyse some of the efforts initiated by the Indian community for its economic and educational improvement.

THE INDIAN ECONOMIC POSITION

Despite the enormous economic growth Malaysia has enjoyed since independence, the position of the Indian community did not improve much. To some extend this was due to the failure of the government to render them any assistance. In the five-year plans introduced since independence, for instance, the government did not initiate any specific programmes to address the socio-economic and educational woes of the community. Even under the New Economic Policy (NEP)1 the Indian community was not accorded separate consideration. Rather, they were bundled with the economically much stronger Chinese community under the non-bumiputra category and left to fend for themselves.

When the NEP was formulated, the majority of the Indians were employed in the low-paying agriculture and service sectors. Their participation in other sectors was negligible. There were only about 4.3 per cent Indians in the professional and managerial group. In comparison, the composition of the Malays in that category was 12 per cent while the Chinese monopolized the sector with about 72 per cent. Similarly, in the technical and supervisory category the percentage of Indians was 6.1 per cent compared to 20 per cent of Malays and 73 per cent of Chinese (MTR 2MP 1973, p. 13). The Indian household income, too, was much lower than other races, as could be seen from the table below.