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Sikh Canadian
Political Pitch
Jasbeer Singh
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The recently concluded Canadian general elections saw the
participation and victory of a good number of Sikh candidates.
Jasbeer Singh, who keeps a close watch on Sikh Canadian affairs,
provides a thorough perspective on Sikh participation in
political affairs. |
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 1984
was a tragedy that struck the Sikh world in its face. While it
inflicted unimaginable human cost, it also brought in its wake
opportunities for nation building. As a nation, unfortunately, to a
very large extent, we have been ignorant of these opportunities. We
lie to ourselves that we were so overcome with the tragedy or ‘the
shell shock’ that we could not think beyond death and destruction
all around us. The actual reality, we do not want to face is that we
have never created any organizational infrastructure based on
education and sound principles of governance and management. These
are necessary for us to achieve lasting security, freedoms and
perhaps, glory, as envisioned by our Gurus.
What happened in
India in
1984 came as a total shock to the Sikhs in
Canada,
who were unaware of daily goings on in political circles in
Punjab.
The bond of spirituality and religion that ties us all together
played an expectedly crucial role. It woke us from deep slumber and
feigned or distance induced indifference towards happenings half way
around the world.
 The
people, who, for over three quarters of a century, had focused their
minds on family, economic survival and occasional participation in
religious or cultural festivities, had their noses turned towards
public affairs or politics in
Canada.
A few cultural
or pseudo-political groups had come to exist through the efforts and
contributions made by Sikh immigrants. These were largely controlled
by better educated and more politically astute non-Sikh people from
the Indian sub-continent. The flames of fire emerging from Sri
Darbar Sahib and other holy shrines set the hearts of every Sikh on
fire, no matter where he lived. The custodians or so-called leaders
of these community organizations mocked and trivialized the anguish
in Sikh hearts. The die was cast for Sikh political activism in
Canada.
Until then,
there was a total lack of political leadership and no organizational
structures – other than Gurdwaras, existed. Gurdwaras could barely
keep up with the religious requirements of the community. Over a
quarter of a million Sikhs, in desperate search of avenues for
release and expression of their bottled-up emotional energy, became
an easy prey for opportunists and exploiters. Many of these were
planted, lead, financed and directed by anti-Sikh foreign
intelligence operatives. These operatives were certainly successful
in creating many unpleasant situations that were tailored to justify
their mass slander of the entire Sikh community in the eyes of
unsuspecting Canadians.
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It is reassuring to see a growing number of Canadian born and
educated young people getting elected to legislative and
parliamentary bodies. However, we need to understand that we are
relative new entrants to Canada’s political system, its
institutions and processes. We must not let our desire to
succeed get ahead of our knowledge, skills, networking abilities
and understanding of systems as well as protocols. Our elected
members need to work doubly hard to earn respect and reputation
as knowledgeable, hardworking, receptive, fair, decisive and
courageous representatives with great discipline, conviction and
character.
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When Canadian
Sikhs went knocking on the doors of political leaders, they found
that most politicians were already under the influence of the Indian
government propaganda. They were largely unsympathetic to Sikh pleas
of innocence.
This was a
wake-up call for Canadian Sikhs. They heeded this one quite
enthusiastically.
Stage one of
understanding Canadian political system, started with active
mobilization at grass roots level in provincial and federal
constituencies. A relatively small visible minority became
increasingly vocal and decisive at constituency level democratic
processes in many urban centres. In some of these constituencies,
they succeeded in getting their own candidates nominated, as early
as in 1985. Election of Don Getty as the Progressive Conservative
Party leader and as premier of the
province of
Alberta, in October 1985 was credited to support of Sikh delegates
at the leadership convention held in Edmonton.
The World Sikh
Organization on a national and international stage and city level
organizations like the Sikh Federation of Edmonton, must be
commended for striving hard, in a non-partisan manner, to educate,
motivate and inspire community members to become active and
effective participants in
Canada’s public
processes.
Jean Chrétien’s
success at the federal Liberal leadership convention in
Calgary,
in 1990, was similarly attributed to more than two hundred Sikh
voting delegates out of a Canada wide total of nearly 3700. This was
made possible through incredible efforts of Mr. Prem Singh Vinning
and his team of volunteer organizers.
 While
still a student at the
University of
British Columbia, Mr. Manmohan (Moe) Sahota became the first Sikh to
be elected as an MLA, anywhere in Canada. He was later followed by
Ujjal Dosanjh, who became the provincial premier. Gurmant and Nina
Grewal became the first married couple to serve as Members of
Parliament at the same time. Harbance Dhaliwal and Gurbux Singh
Malhi were the first Sikhs to be elected as members of parliament in
Canada.
Harb Dhaliwal became a high profile and highly respected cabinet
minister in the Liberal federal government.
It is heartening
to note that the efforts of political aspirants, their families and
supporters have been well rewarded at the ballot box. In numerical
terms, we have done reasonably well in
Ontario, in
British Columbia and in Alberta, where our community members have
been successful at municipal, provincial and federal levels.
Nine community
members were elected in the recent federal elections on
14 October 2008,
three each from Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. While this
provides a very respectable numeric representation in Canada’s House
of Commons, with a total 308 members of parliament, the impact of
this strength depends entirely on the caliber, commitment,
dedication and hard work of these elected members.
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The Sikh Numbers
Canadian Parliament
Of the 302 members of the Canadian Parliament, six members are
or Sikh background. They are Gurbax Singh Malhi, Navdeep Singh
Bains, Dr. Ruby Dhalla, Ujjal Dosanjh, Nina Grewal and Sukh
Dhaliwal
British Columbia Legislative Assembly
In the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, there are 7
members of Sikh background in a house of 79. They are Sindi
Hawkins, Deputy Speaker, Wally Oppal, Q.C., Harry Lali, Dave S.
Hayer, Harry Bains, Jagrup Brar and Raj Chouhan
Provincial Parliament of Ontario:
In the 107 house of the Provincial Parliament of Ontario, there
are four members of Sikh background. They are: Harinder S.
Takhar, Kuldip Kular, Amrit Mangat and Vic Dhillon.
Legislative Assembly of Alberta
The Legislative Assembly of Alberta consists of 83 seats. Of
these, three members are of Sikh background. They are Manmeet
Singh Bhullar, Darshan Kang and Peter Sandhu.
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In the context
of
India’s democratic system, it is customary to consider electoral
victory to be the end of hard work. In Canadian context, the reality
is totally different. It is the beginning of a long stretch of
grueling hard work. Most parliamentary constituencies in Canada have
more than 100,000 people. Unlike in
India,
Canadian members of parliament cannot hide behind a protective
shield of fans, friends, sycophants and supporters. They need to
interact with their constituents, participate in parliamentary
processes, attend committee meetings and face the media. They need
to sell their government’s and party policies, programs and projects
to a very demanding audience who will, some time later, decide
whether or not to re-elect this person.
Quite often,
this is where the ‘disconnect’ occurs. People who have grown up with
India’s system of ‘feudal politics’ are also the ones who,
invariably, face linguistic and cultural barriers as well as
communicational challenges in dealing with a vast variety of people
in Canada. They will be wise to secure the services of mature,
politically astute and culturally integrated office and
parliamentary assistants to meet their constituents’ needs in a
timely and efficient manner.
It is reassuring
to see a growing number of Canadian born and educated young people
getting elected to legislative and parliamentary bodies. However, we
need to understand that we are relative new entrants to
Canada’s
political system, its institutions and processes. We must not let
our desire to succeed get ahead of our knowledge, skills, networking
abilities and understanding of systems as well as protocols. Our
elected members need to work doubly hard to earn respect and
reputation as knowledgeable, hardworking, receptive, fair, decisive
and courageous representatives with great discipline, conviction and
character.
The biggest
problems encountered during the electoral process can be summarized
as, the quality of candidates and a lack of a strong track record of
involvement. Many aspirants are yet to make visible and meaningful
contributions towards society as a whole. All pervasive division and
polarization within the community, poor organization, inadequate
communication and debating skills, cultural and linguistic handicaps
become additional hurdles.
In
Canada it is
possible to get elected on the coat tails of a popular leader or the
party. This has been amply demonstrated. However, gaining meaningful
political power, influence and authority requires hard work to
acquire needed knowledge and skills. Many of our elected community
members do not make that investment. This, in effect, reinforces the
negative stereotype of ‘demanding without contributing or without
demonstrating the skills and abilities’. This is also known as the
culture of ‘entitlements’ and is rightly frowned upon.
The family and
friends in the home-town or village of the elected representative
have every reason and right to be proud of entrepreneurial or
political successes achieved by ‘one of them’. It is also reasonable
to expect that the honour bestowed on the elected member be
appropriately acknowledged and reciprocated in a suitable manner.
However, when some of our elected community members seek to
translate Canadian electoral successes into societal, political and
even material gain or advantage in their community in
Punjab or
elsewhere in India, it is hard to understand or justify such
motives.
A great deal has
been achieved during the past twenty five years, but huge challenges
lie ahead. Canadian Sikhs have done extremely well in their quest
for material riches. There is no reason, they cannot perform equally
well in intellectual, professional and political pursuits. Our
elected members can help our community re-focus their energies for a
brighter and happier future.
 The veteran author is a keen observer of Sikh public affairs,
economy, international affairs, technology, community activities and
volunteerism. He believes that ‘no improvement is possible without a
change’, and that change can be brought through education, awareness
and involvement of youth and families. To encourage people to focus
on such a thought process and to stimulate them to implement such
changes, he and his similarly inspired friends, publishing a
bi-lingual (Punjabi & English) monthly magazine titled Parivartan.
He may be reached via e-mail at
magmaint@hotmail.com.
19 November
2008
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