Niat makes five demands for the Indian community

Among its core demands are for the winning party in the next general election to appoint an Indian deputy prime minister and set up the Department of Minority Affairs.

PETALING JAYA: The National Indian Rights Action Team (Niat) announced that it would throw its support to any political party that promises to fulfil its five demands for the Indian community.

Niat chairman Thasleem Mohd Ibrahim said the demands, which was made at a forum on Tuesday, must be undertaken within 120 days of the general election.

“The political parties must list our demands in their election manifesto. Plus, the Indian leaders in the political camp must promise to resign en bloc should they fail to implement them,” he said, adding that the demands received support from about 100 NGOs.

Among the NGOs in support of the demand are Malaysian Indian Business Association (MIBA), Malaysian Indian Youth Council and the Malaysian Indian Education Transformation Association (Mieta).

One of their demands is for the government to appoint three deputy prime ministers, with one post reserved for the Indian community.

Thasleem also demanded the government reserve three ministerial positions and five deputy ministers’ jobs for the Indian community.

“One of the ministers must be from the civil society and one deputy minister must be from the Indian-Muslim community. We also want one of the deputy minister’s post to be reserved for a woman,” he said.

Thasleem also demanded the formation of the Department of Minority Affairs which would be tasked to enforce programmes to uplift the socio-economic well-being of the minorities.

On why he was not demanding for a ministry, Thasleem said he was not too keen about it as the prime minister could easily dissolve a ministry.

“But it will not be easy for a prime minister to do away with a government department as it comes under the civil service,” he said.

Another demand was for the government to resolve the issue of stateless Indians once and for all.

“We agree that other communities are also affected as well but it’s more prevalent among the Indians. As far as we are concerned, if you’re born in Malaysia, you are a Malaysian citizen,” he said.

Thasleem said none of the Barisan Nasional leaders turned up at the forum two days ago.

“I extended invitations to them but they didn’t even bother to inform me that they will be absent,” said Thasleem.

However, the NGO leader said that DAP MP M Kulasegaran turned up for the forum and promised to look into the matter.

“Kulasegaran also promised to raise the matter at the Pakatan Rakyat council meeting next week,” he said.