Having taken credit for the removal of Interlok, it should not have a problem in getting the government to declare that all 523 Tamil schools are fully-aided.
PETALING JAYA: A PKR leader today challenged MIC to ask the education ministry to declare that all the 523 Tamil schools in the country are fully aided.
Now that the party has taken credit for the removal of the Interlok novel from the Form Five school syllabus, it should not have a problem in getting the government to acknowledge this.
According to Malacca PKR vice chairman G Rajendran, the conversion of all partially-aided Tamil schools into fully-aided ones is a “long-running battle” of Indian community.
“Despite MIC being the sole representative of the community in the cabinet for the last 54 years, it has still failed to achieve its target,” he told FMT.
“Isn’t 54 years not enough to change all vernacular schools into fully aided ones?” he asked.
“If MIC wields such a powerful influence in the cabinet, then it shouldn’t be a problem to get at least 15 Tamil schools switched to fully aided school before the general-election.
“But they are in cabinet just to fill the Indian quota and Umno gives them ministerial and other positions just to get the Indian votes during election time,” said Rajendran.
Out of a total 523 Tamil schools, only 201 are fully-aided and the remaining 322 partially-aided.
On a related matter, Rajendran claimed that PM Najib Tun Razak and his cabinet agreed to scrap Interlok after intelligence reports showed that the Indian community was still not in favour of BN.
According to him, Indian votes were still in the danger level although, MIC claimed the Indian voters support has swing to BN up to 63%.
Najib wooing Indian voters
Recently, MIC president G Palanivel confirmed that the novel, penned by national laureate Abdullah Hussain, would be withdrawn from the Form Five syllabus.
Interlok was opposed by National Interlok Action Team (NIAT) with support from Pakatan Rakyat leaders, Pakatan-friendly NGOs and the Indian community.
Rajendran said that the tidal wave of protest against Interlok was too massive to ignore and it forced the government to withdraw the Malay literature textbook from schools next year.
Citing several announcements made by the Najib in the last three months, Rajendran said it showed that Najib had to go down to the Indian community to woo them.
In the 2012 budget, for the first time, Najib awarded RM100 million to Tamil schools and another RM100 million to finance small Indian enterprenuer under Amanah Ikthiar scheme.
He also ensured the Tamil announcements will be made at KLIA, LCCT for flights to Chennai from next year.
Meanwhile, Rajendran said that Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has yet to make an announcement regarding the withdrawal of Interlok.
Muhyiddin, who is also the education minister, once remained adamant that Interlok will be used despite certain portions of the book being deemed offensive to the Indian community.
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