Use Pakatan as bargaining chip

Activist tells Indians in an online forum that Pakatan will ensure the interests and demands of the community are met.

VIDEO INSIDE

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Indian community was urged to vote for Pakatan Rakyat so that the Indian community will have a barganing chip to resolve their problems.

K Arumugam, who is also Suaram board of director and Tamil Foundation chairman, said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is unable to stamp out racism that is so entrenched in the system.

“Najib has admitted that BN had made mistakes when it came to dealing with the Indian community. He said ‘forgive me’. We say, you are forgiven, so please take a break.

“This government did not do anything for Indians the past 56 years, neither did the Najib in the past four years,” he told an online forum, ‘GE13: What’s at stake for Malaysian Indians?’

Carried ‘live’ on Google Hangout at 7pm on Monday night, the one-hour programme in Tamil was hosted by Pusat Komas. Hindu Youth Organisation’s R Subramaniam was the other speaker.

Arumugam said that though Najib had good intentions with regards to the Indians, the policy and implementation will not be in favour of non-Malay communities.

“The government has no political will because the Implementation and Coordination Unit is like a machine recognising and accepting three key words – Malay, Islam and Bumiputera.

“This also extends to the ministries that are implementing policies. With Pakatan, which is a threat to BN, the minorities now have a bargaining chip,” he said.

On this note, he criticised Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia (Hindraf) chairman P Waythamoorthy for signing a memorandum of understanding with Najib.

“If we were to give two thirds majority to BN as Waythamoorthy has called for, then we are the fools,” he said.

“Until several months ago, Waythamoorthy too had agreed that there was the need for reforms within the government to ensure the upliftment of the Indian community.

“I can only speculate that Waythamoorthy may have been bought over,” said Arumugam.

Quality education

He said that it was vital for Indians to vote for Pakatan Rakyat because “only they can remove Umno (from power).

He also criticised the government’s policy of giving out funds to the Indian community.

“As citizens we ought to have a share in everything in this country. We are entitled to it,” he said.

According to Arumugam, Opposition and PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim promised to “provide entitlement with distributive justice” once Pakatan comes into power.

“The thinking that Malaysia is for Malays is entrenched in the Malay psyche and this is a result of Umno government’s racism. Now we all have an opportunity to change this,” he said.

He also spoke on several issues close to the Indian community such as citizenship, education and social problems.

“Education is important but the Malays and Indians did not get quality education. It is the government’s obligation to provide quality education to all and sundry,” he said.

Subramaniam, meanwhile, said our education system, which is examination-oriented does not provide adequate attention to less academically inclined students.

“Student in the bottom classes are ignored. They are not given a space explore their talents,” he said, resulting in students getting drawn into unhealthy activities like gangsterism.

Arumugam said that the National Education Blueprint shows the BN government’s admittance that all is not right and a change can only be seen in about three decades.

“Only quality education can bring in wealth to the nation and Pakatan’s promise of a free education when it comes into power looks promising,” he said.

To improve job opportunities for all communities, he said that Anwar had promised to remove 1 million foreign workers from Malaysia’s domestic job market.