MIC must open its accounts book

Explaining where the funds went and who benefited from it would go a long way in winning the hearts and minds of the 900,000 Malaysian Indian voters.

COMMENT

Since Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak took the helm of the country and the ruling Barisan Nasional, he has been going the extra mile to shore up support for the coalition, which had ruled the nation since independence in 1957.

Najib was forced to concentrate more on building support, compared to his predecessors, because of the 2008 general election, which required the BN to back-peddle and once again work to regain trust of Malaysians.

At the 2008 electoral outing, BN, then under the leadership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, lost its long held two-thirds majority in Parliament.

It also lost four state governments – Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor.

Kelantan has traditionally been in the hands of PAS, a member of the opposition pact, Pakatan Rakyat, made up of PAS, DAP and PKR.

Pakatan lost Perak after four state assemblymen became independents, allowing the BN to regain power in the state.

One of the main reasons, cited by political pundits and analysts alike, for BN’s fall in 2008 is that the Indian community, which used to rally behind the ruling coalition since independence, had deserted the BN in the historic polls.

Although the nearly two-million community is not the majority in any of the 222 parliamentary seats in the country, the community could swing results of a particular seat if Malay and Chinese votes are split.

With the Chinese community continuing their support for the opposition and Malays starting to swing towards the BN, Indian votes have now become crucial.

Burning questions

With this scenario, Najib has gone the extra mile to win the hearts and minds of the Malaysian Indian community.

He has splashed nearly RM900 million for the community over the last two years.

Now, some burning questions have popped up. Where have all the announced funds gone? How and who was it spent on? These crucial questions can only be answered by the MIC, which claims to be the largest Indian-based political party in the country.

Being a BN component, the G Palanivel-led MIC is spearheading the government’s efforts in winning over Indian support and as such, it was entrusted to bring issues besieging the Malaysian Indian community to the government. The onus is on the party to “settle” these questions.

FMT learns that the Education Ministry had allocated nearly RM287million for 370 partially-aided Tamil schools in the past two years.

On March 22, 2012 during a parliamentary session, Hulu Selangor MP P Kamalanathan, who is also MIC central working committee member, admitted that the government had allocated RM287 million in 2011 and 2012 for Tamil schools.

The MIC Putera coordinator had also thanked Najib for a supplementary RM100 million for partially-aided Tamil schools when the prime minister presented the 2012 Budget.

While the Education Ministry had recently said that it dispensed RM10 million out of the RM100 million, what happened to the remainder RM90 million remains a “mystery”.

It has also been reported that the country’s top Indian tycoons had contributed another RM20 million for Tamil schools via a community chest, established by them.

Apart from Tamil schools, Najib had also announced RM180 million loans for Indian entrepreneurs.

Who is telling the truth?

Despite MIC and other BN friendly non-governmental organisations hosting roadshows to inform the community of the special fund, a DAP leader recently lodged a police report claiming that the RM180 million allocation was a hoax.

D Kamache, who lodged the report, claimed that the so-called special allocation was an “eye wash” to gain Indian votes and MIC was trying to become the “champion of the community” by “selling something that does not exist”.

The Indian community is now eagerly waiting for MIC to clear the air. However, the party is still acting like an ostrich putting its head in the sand at the first sign of trouble. The party is shrouded with secrecy especially when it came to funds.

There is no leader in the party who can declare the accounts of the funds announced by the government.

This brings another question: Who is telling the truth? Is it the DAP or MIC? Do the funds really exist?

Another matter MIC needs to clarify is the Tekun business loan. Najib in presenting Budget 2012 last year, had announced a RM30 million allocation for Indian businesses.

He also announced a RM100 million loan facility, under the Amanah Ikthiar scheme, meant for Indian women entrepreneurs.

Other important funds announced by the prime minister were RM50 million for housing loan for plantation workers (Budget 2011), RM8 million under the Tukar programme, and RM6 million for NGOs and temples

In general, Najib has gone out of the way to please the community allocating nearly RM900 million during his short three-year tenure. But where is the money? With the amount announced, the community should have witnessed vast changes but this is not visible on the ground.

Indians continue to go from bank to bank trying to get loans for their business. They still face hardship. Tamil schools are still plagued with infrastructure issues. Temples are still applying to the authorities for funds.

Even if the RM900 million was given to the 350,000 Indian households in the country, each would have at least obtained RM2,500.

The MIC, being the sole Indian representative in the country, has the duty to explain the channelling of the funds. Although the party could say that it was not dispersing the funds, it cannot run away from its duty of being the government’s mouthpiece for the community.

Spending money or announcing fund after fund is not going to bring in the votes. Explaining where the funds went and who benefited from it, would go a long way in winning the hearts and minds of the 900,000 Malaysian Indian voters, crucial in deciding who forms the next federal government.