Muhyiddin said BN always has the Indian community’s interests at heart.—Picture by Saw Siow Feng
“The government’s commitment is to see that with all the aid given, the quality of education at SJKTs will improve, thus bring about a quantum leap in the education standard in the country,” he said in his Thaipusam speech at Batu Caves here yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, pointed out that the Malaysia Education Blueprint would ensure that all schools including SJKTs would have access to quality education.
He drew attention to the fact that the Education Ministry had channelled RM584,382,340 for operating expenditure of SJKTs in 2011, and this figure went up to RM660,346,311 in 2012.
Besides that, SJKTs were also allocated RM100 million in Budget 2012 and 2013 for development purposes, he said.
Muhyiddin stressed that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government always had the interests of the Indian community at heart and this was reflected in the setting up of a special Cabinet committee to look after the wellbeing of the community. Citing the MyDaftar programme as an example, he said it had helped the community resolve all sorts of documentation problems.
As of May 2012, 4,155 citizenship applications, 222 marriage applications, 682 MyKad applications as well as 71 applications related to amendments in birth certificates had been approved, he said.
In addition, the number of matriculation places for Indian students was increased by 1,000 in 2012, from 500 in 2011.
“The government also allocated RM1 billion in shares under Amanah Saham 1 Malaysia for the community besides disbursing various financial aid like schooling aid and Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M),” he said.
Muhyiddin also said not many multi-racial and multi-religious countries could maintain peace attained since independence like Malaysia.
“But in Malaysia, racial and religious differences are not obstacles for us to achieve peace and prosperity,” he said.
He said while European countries were saddled with recession, Malaysia’s economy registered a 5.3 per cent growth in the third quarter of 2012.
“The success does not stop here. Within the next seven years, the people will be able to see Malaysia emerge as a developed nation,” he added.
Muhyiddin said he was confident that the Indian community would continue to support the BN to ensure that all plans laid out would be implemented while the aspiration of living in a developed, peaceful and prosperous country would be achieved.
In the meantime, he said he would bring to the Cabinet a request from the Indian community to make Thaipusam a national public holiday, not merely confined to several states.
He said Tamil schools also got enjoy a holiday for the Ponggal festival but the schooling session for it would have to be replaced. — Bernama
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