Indians still a neglected community

Prior to GE14, Dr Mahathir Mohamad admitted that he was partly guilty of neglecting the Indian community during his time as Prime Minister. He apologized for the past lapses and vowed to render more assistance to the minority group should the Pakatan Harapan coalition gain power in the elections.

He further pledged to allocate RM4 billion over 10 years for the development of the community.

But what has happened? Harapan must not only promise, but keep their promise.

We saw intense campaigning by the current Indian ministers in the cabinet to capture the Indian votes. They spoke relentlessly on empowering Tamil schools, special grants to uplift the B40 sector, citizenship, micro credits, financial assistance for students.

But the Malaysian Indian Blueprint is still shrouded in mystery.

Waythamoorthy (above) went around the country meeting Indians, claiming that he was advocating the rights of the marginalized community.

Waytha, the hero of the Hindraf movement, complained that Malaysian Indians were regarded as second-class citizens, and billions of ringgit were being spent mostly on the majority, Malay-Muslims.

He accused ex-PM Najib Razak of duping and giving false hopes and promises to the marginalized Indian community. He said the BN government had prevented a majority of the Indian community from being included in the mainstream development of the nation.

He described the Blueprint for the Indian Community, a 10-year master plan launched in April 2018 to ensure Indians were not neglected, marginalized or left behind, as “an April Fool's” document.

This resulted in Indian votes shifting away from BN.

Now, Waytha is a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, and he is living in denial.

Has he been able to deliver the changes he had promised? Can he ensure an increase in the proportion of Indians in the civil service reaching a minimum of 7 percent? How many years will it take to reach that target, if ever?

To date, Waytha has not revealed any effort to improve income, especially for the bottom 40 percent of Indian households, to improve education, to create a sense of inclusion for the community.

His previous fiery remarks do not sit well with Indians now.

Waytha has become a spent force, lost his thunder.

The Indian problem can only be solved in a holistic manner by changes in key national policies, not by just giving funds to NGOs, making press statements so that he can appear in Tamil news media daily.

The Indian problem is not seasonal, coming alive only during election time. The Malaysdian Indian Blueprint has gone into hibernation. The community does not need piecemeal solutions.

Waytha should not just toy with the people’s sentiments just to gain votes and support. Once controversial and vociferous in criticising the previous government, making disparaging remarks, he is now quiet as a mouse.

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M VIVEK served as an aide to several former MIC deputy ministers. - Mkini