Arrest decline in moral values with religious education, urges MIC

MIC president wants religious education classes to begin in schools.

KUALA LUMPUR: A lack of religious education may be a reason for moral decay among Indians, says MIC president Dr S Subramaniam.

He said the June death of a student, named T Nhaveen, 18, beaten to death by a group of Indians in Penang, had made people wonder at the reason for the moral decay.

He said this case was not an isolated one, stressing that erosion of social values among youths was prevalent in Malaysia.

“Such incidents raise many questions. Has the system failed?

“What is the reason for this? And, of course, how are we going to face this in the future?”

Subramaniam urged the government to study the need to provide stronger support for the religious education of Indians and other communities at all levels within the education system itself.

There had been many proposals to implement this but MIC had so far failed to get the support to allow this to be done, he said in his opening speech at MIC’s 71st annual general meeting here today.

On the upcoming 14th general election (GE14), Subramaniam said MIC would heed Prime Minister Najib Razak’s call for the party to provide “winnable and credible candidates”.

“Right now, we already have a list of such candidates. However, it will change according to current situations.”

He said these candidates must appeal to voters of all races.

Earlier, Najib, who is BN chairman, had said there was no constituency where Indians represented the majority, despite forming 7% of Malaysia’s population.

“For example, the Teluk Kemang seat in Negeri Sembilan has an army camp. The MIC candidate there must appeal to this community in order for the party to win,” said Najib.⁠⁠⁠⁠ -FMT