Pakatan has failed Indians, say DAP members

It was a raw deal for the community under the BN while it is no deal at all in Pakatan run states

GEORGE TOWN: The consensus among DAP’s ethnic Indian members is that the Pakatan Rakyat state governments have failed to address many contentious community issues.

They felt that Pakatan governments should have done more for Indians pertaining to public sector employment, housing, business opportunities, Tamil schools and Hindu temples.

Their disgruntlement was evident at a closed-door meeting among 50 DAP Indian members, including elected representatives, at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur last week.

“After three years in power, Pakatan governments in Penang, Selangor and Kedah are doing only a ‘BN’ for Indians,” a member, who attended the meeting, told FMT.

Like Barisan Nasional, he said Pakatan governments have handed out small funds and allotted land for a handful of Tamil schools and Hindu temples “here and there.”

The member claimed certain allotted lands were actually set aside by previous BN administration, such as for Azad and Ladang Batu Kawan Tamil Schools in Penang.

When BN lost in 2008, he said the newly elected Pakatan government simply signed on the dotted lines and passed on the lands.

“But the state government claims that they are doing great for Indians. They are merely emulating BN’s previous policy … there is no difference,” said the member from Selangor.

DAP national vice-chairman and Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran organised the meeting, which was officiated by party veteran Lim Kit Siang.

Penang DAP deputy chairman and deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, Bagan Dalam assemblyman A Tanasekharan, Perak DAP deputy chairman and Tronoh assemblyman V Sivakumar, Perak DAP vice-chairman and Sungkai assemblyman A Sivanesan and former ISA detainee V Ganapathirau attended the meeting.

A DAP elected representative told the meeting that state governments in Selangor, Penang and Kedah have failed to provide sufficient employment opportunities for ethnic Indians in the public sector.

He said that recruitment of Indians into the state government-controlled departments, corporations and government link companies (GLCs) was negligible and noted that employment of Indians in local councils “was virtually non-existent.”

“Indians were not asking for white collar management jobs, just blue collar work. But even such jobs were not adequately provided for them,” said the state representative.

Form task force

Another recognisable Selangor politician said the incompetence of Indian state representatives and parliamentarians to form a Pakatan task force to look after the community’s affairs was the biggest failure of all.

If only the task force had been formed three years, he said, Indians in Pakatan would not have to ‘fight’ with the state governments each time to provide benefits to the community.

He concurred with the general perception that “it was a raw deal under the BN while it is no deal at all in Pakatan for Indians.”

Under BN, he said, MIC as an Indian party “would somehow get something reserved for Indians.”

A DAP branch leader suggested that it was not too late to form the task force to look after Indian interests.

“We can form it now, do some research and draw up blueprints for Pakatan governments to implement in their respective states,” he said.

He pointed out that a 1998 socio-economic report on Penang Indians prepared by Socio-Economic Research Institute can be used as the basis in Penang.

He said it was unacceptable to keep on saying that Pakatan can only deliver for Indians after capturing Putrajaya

“Pakatan state governments actually can do a lot right now, especially allotting land for Tamil schools.”