To whomever it may concern, you go around wailing and ridiculing Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for not fulfilling your so-called 18-point memorandum. Did Pakatan address these 18 demands in their 2018 budget?
After the ceremonial handshake with Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is Hindraf a real partner within Pakatan now?
P Waythamoorthy, would you be willing to cut ties with Pakatan for not honouring you? Or you rather be a servant to the dictator who caused the systematic neglect of the Indian community in his 22-year rule?
Let me lay down the facts of the budget that has many frothing from their mouth.
In the recent Budget 2018, BN has these Indian specific initiatives:
- RM1.5 billion units will be allotted under the Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS1M) scheme by Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB).
- Where will the poor Indians get the money to join the scheme? RM500 million as an interest-free loan for 100k B40 families to participate in the AS1M Investment scheme.
- Tekun’s RM50 million for micro-entrepreneurs under the SPUMI-SEDIC Collaboration. Note that loans amounting to RM1.39 billion have been given to 31,655 Indian entrepreneurs since 2012.
- RM20 million from the National Innovation Agency (AIM) to Indian women entrepreneurs.
- RM50 million was allocated for Tamil schools. Since 2009, over RM900 million was given out to the schools.
- RM50 million in allocations to the Socio-Economic Development of the Indian Community (SEDIC) for initiatives such as youth and business development, upliftment for single mothers. Since 2014, RM230 million has been given out to Indian NGOs.
- Seven percent employment rate into government civil services by strengthening the public service department recruitment pipeline.
- Seven percent enrolment of Indian students via the Institut Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA) by supporting qualified students.
On the other hand, Pakatan has only two Indian specific initiatives.
- Increasing Indian equity participation by giving RM2 billion worth of loans with four percent interest scheme. It should be noted that BN is offering a zero interest loan.
- Providing RM200 million in grants to NGOs to carry out their social programs. BN, however, has given out RM230 million since 2015 to 800 over NGOs
If you look through BN’s budget, the Indian community seems to take precedent to all other communities in Malaysia.
There are more chances here for the upliftment of Indians than with Harapan. Why didn’t Waythamoorthy demand for an exclusive unit within the government to implement Indian initiatives?
SEDIC has been created to do just that by Najib with over 50 personnel, but Waythamoorthy was enraged because he was not appointed to lead this unit.
Hindraf wants to go on a roadshow to convince Indians to vote against BN. The roadshow is premised on the argument that the government did not carry out a single initiative for the Indian community, specifically the areas outlined in the Hindraf Memorandum of 2013.
I challenge Waythamoorthy to go on a roadshow and demand equal partnership within Harapan for Indians. They can’t even produce more than a page of Indian specific plans as we have seen in their 2018 budget and even worse, their past plans for Indians have been laden with cobwebs, such as the Gelang Patah Declaration.
Who caused the reduction of Indians within the civil service? Who caused the systematic displacement of Indians from estates and into downtrodden longhouses and the shackles they were forced to live in? Who initiated the unfair intake into universities?
By your logic, we are here at a low point in the history of the Indian community because of Najib.
The matter of fact it is Waythamoorthy who said that Mahathir’s era was the worst time for Indians in the country. It was during this period that Indians lost out to other communities.
Today you choose to be in bed with him, betraying the Indian community.
Why?
THINALAN T RAJAGOPALU is the National Deputy MIC Youth Leader. - Mkini
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