Subra: Mahathir himself failed the Indians

PUTRAJAYA: MIC president Dr S Subramaniam has attributed most of the problems faced by the Indian community to the casual attitude towards the community’s welfare during Dr Mahathir Mohamed’s reign as prime minister.

Dr Subramaniam said the issues currently raised by Mahathir, such as statelessness among Indians and the plight of Tamil schools, could have been resolved during Mahathir’s 22 years in power up to 2003.

Mahathir now leads the opposition coalition of Pakatan Harapan and is chairman of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, formed after he left Umno.

“Because all these issues were left aside without any resolution, today the problems involving the Indians have become a legacy problem,” he said at a press conference today.

He was asked to comment on Mahathir’s claim yesterday that former MIC president S Samy Vellu did not do anything for the Indian community, and that voters should punish MIC in the coming general election as the right thing to do.

Subramaniam said the solving of problems related to the Indian community began in 2010 after Najib Razak became prime minister in 2009 and the citizenship cases of 7,000 people were solved through the ‘MyDaftar’ campaign.

The Barisan Nasional-led government provided a huge allocation of almost RM1 billion to bring about improvements and repairs in Tamil national type schools, he said.

“Now, all (of the schools) are well equipped. At that time (Mahathir’s rule), nothing was done. I think Mahathir should look back at what his contribution was when he was prime minister,” he said.

Subramaniam, who was met outside the Perdana Putra compound after attending the announcement of the dissolution of Parliament, earlier said MIC would finalise the list of GE14 candidates next week, and to date the list was almost 80% completed.

He said he would discuss with the BN supreme council about the candidates for parliamentary and state seats, especially in Selangor, Perak and Johor.

“Our election machinery is now ready, and our momentum is good and smooth,” he said. - FMT