Blueprint for Indians not political rhetoric, says Sedic

Director-general NS Rajendran says an independent monitoring mechanism will ensure any setbacks in the 10-year action plan are rectified.

PETALING JAYA: The Unit for the Socio-economic Development of the Indian Community (Sedic) has refuted claims that the government’s new Malaysian Indian Blueprint (MIB) is merely political rhetoric aimed at drawing Indian votes ahead of the 14th general election.

Its director-general NS Rajendran said today the government had opted for a more “responsible approach” with a long-term solution to address the under-representation and under-performance of Indians in education, employment and wealth creation.

“If it was to win votes in GE14, we could have placed a timeline of one to two years to complete delivery of MIB, which would have had the intended effect of increasing Indian votes come GE14,” he said in a statement.

He said Sedic, which comes under the Prime Minister’s Department, will be expanded and provided “sufficient resources, authority and credibility” in the administration to coordinate and oversee the execution of the plan’s deliverables.

A separate and independent monitoring mechanism will also be put in place to ensure setbacks are analysed and rectified, he added.

The yearly targets of the MIB will be annually audited by the monitoring body for tabling to the Cabinet Committee on Indian Participation in Government Programmes and Projects (CCIC) and its executive committee.

“This strategy will effectively combat the longevity issue faced by other initiatives,” he said.

“The outcomes of these deliverables will be published in an annual performance report for your consumption,” he added.

Rajendran was responding to Klang MP Charles Santiago of the DAP and Seri Andalas assemblyman Dr Xavier Jayakumar of PKR, who told a press conference yesterday that the MIB did not address problems faced by hardcore poor Indians.

Santiago said the MIB did not focus on how to move the B40 group, comprising the bottom 40% of households with monthly incomes of RM3,900 and below, up the socio-economic ladder and increase their wealth.

Jayakumar meanwhile questioned why the government needed 10 years to resolve the issue of stateless Indians, saying the opposition would resolve the matter in six months if it took power.

Rajendran said the MIB comprised 38 “dynamic targets” to be reached within the next ten years, with some to be accomplished before 2020.

“Therefore it is misleading to state that the targets will only be realised in the tenth year,” he said.

“These leaders could have approached us to clear any doubts cast on MIB and we could have provided the facts,” he added.

“It was clearly not in the best of intentions to see an improvement within the Malaysian Indian community.”

He thanked Prime Minister Najib Razak for the trust bestowed on him to lead the team in the “unprecedented undertaking” to uplift the socio-economic level of Indians, especially those in the B40 group.

Najib launched the federal government’s ten-year action plan to uplift the socio-economic status of Indians in Malaysia on April 23, with an allocation of more than RM1 billion.

Rajendran also said the MIB was not a “sudden intervention” as claimed by many.

He said that since 2009, government policies and mechanisms had been launched under the CCIC with four new units and organisations set up to deal with business enhancement, Tamil schools, ICBC and overall socio-economic empowerment.

Tags: FMT, Malaysia, KL, Malaysian Indian Blueprint, Sedic, Unit for Socioeconomic Development of Indian Community, NS Rajendran, Charles Santiago, Xavier Jayakumar, GE14 -FMT