‘Needs not race-based plan to tackling woes’

PKR vice president N Surendran, waffles through questions on the 'missing' Indian element in Pakatan's manifesto.

PETALING JAYA: Yet another PKR official has come to the defense of the Pakatan Rakyat’s race-biased manifesto which has drawn flak from several quarters.

The manifesto has no mention of plans to uplift the Indian community, who were pivotal to the coalition’s historical win in the March 2008 election.

Several Indian NGOs including Hindraf, which mobilised a massive rally of 80,000 disgruntled Indians in November 2007, have criticised Pakatan for ignoring the needs of the Indian poor in its election pledge while weighing in Felda settlers and the Orang Asli communities. Hindraf has consistently slammed Pakatan for ignoring the community and under-playing the crucial role Indians played in ensuring the opposition’s victory.

Parrying criticisms yesterday, party vice-president N Surendran waffled through questions posed by FMT saying that Pakatan believed that a needs-based approach was the most effective way to tackling problems of poverty and lack of education irrespective of race and religion.

“Our approach is needs-based. We believe that it is the fastest and most effective way in order to uplift Malaysians who have been left behind, whether from lack of education or from poverty,” said Surendran.

He said 55 years of Barisan Nasional rule had led to people expecting change and economic assistance to be on the basis of race.

“We completely and utterly reject this approach because it is divisive and it makes no sense at all. It is almost like a medieval thing, going by race and religion,” he said.

Yesterday MCA questioned the coalition’s rationale of leaving out the Indian community in its election manifesto. The manifesto however pledged to uphold justice for Felda settlers including restructuring all shareholders of Felda Global Ventures (FGV) and preserve the Orang Asli rights of land and welfares.

MCA vice-president Gan Peng Sieu said if Pakatan’s rationale was to make need-based policies non-communal, then why were there “special visions” outlined for “specific communities” such as Felda settlers and Orang Asli.

Free education for all

Side-stepping questions on the missing Indian component, Surendran re-iterated that the manifesto would tackle issues on a needs-based policy.

“For instance, if a particular sector of the community is suffering from poverty, we have programmes to tackle that problem.

“Or if it’s the question of education, for example, then children of the poor need to be given the best education to break the cycle of poverty,” he said.

He said that this was the reason why PKR is pushing for free-education.

“Free education is going to help all races. So the needs-based approach is definitely the best approach,” he said.

Surendran said it was both “an embarrassment and a shame to the country, that the government still carries on administration on the basis of race.”

“In many countries, a lot of the things that this government is doing on the basis of race would be illegal.

“That is why Pakatan is trying to take our country into a new era, an era in which your skin colour does not matter anymore,” he said.

He further claimed that the BN is regressing by clinging on to outdated racial and religious ideals.

“The BN is holding this country back. They are tied to a sickening and antiquated doctrine of race and religion.

“This is a political coalition which still forbids other races from joining its component parties,” said Surendran.

‘Saving Malaysia’

He added that there is a need to create a free country and that “it can be done because everyone is born free.”

“Under the new government, we want to make sure that the fundamental rights and liberties of the rakyat is given the highest priority possible,” he said.

He added that people should be able to live freely; they should be able to voice their opinions.

“They should not fear being arrested arbitrarily, newspaper should be free and there should be no Draconian laws,” he said.

Surendran further claimed that the ruling BN government had “stolen” these sets of “freedom” soon after independence.

“What we want to do is take back those freedoms and give it back to the people.

“We want to return to the people what that was stolen from us. That’s what the struggle is all about, it’s about freeing our country, breaking down racial barriers, ending corruption, and making sure that every Malaysian has got an opportunity to prosper.

“It’s about saving Malaysia,” said Surendran.