PN-linked Indian party rips Anwar over cabinet line-up

 

The Malaysian Indian People’s Party (MIPP), which is seeking to join Perikatan Nasional, fired a scathing salvo at Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for not appointing a Tamil cabinet minister.

Without mincing words, its deputy president S Subramaniam labelled the Pakatan Harapan chairperson as the “worst prime minister” for the Indian community.

He said this is the first time since 1955 that there is no Tamil representative in the cabinet.

“This is another ‘achievement’ for the government in ignoring the Indian community which backed Harapan in the last general election,” he told Malaysiakini.

Subramaniam argued that the request for a Tamil representative in the cabinet was not racist.

“In Malaysia, close to 85 percent of Indians are Tamils and the main language of communication in the Indian community is Tamil. So it is only fair,” he said.

Furthermore, Subramaniam pointed out that the prime minister does not have an Indian political aide as well.

“Anwar has four political secretaries, three Malays and one Chinese. He only appointed an Indian special officer. Why not an Indian political secretary? Are there no capable Indians in Harapan?” he asked.

The ethnic Tamil representation issue cropped up after the recent cabinet reshuffle witnessed V Sivakumar being dropped as the human resources minister and Gobind Singh Deo, who is a Punjabi, appointed as digital minister.

Why was Sivakumar removed?

MIPP also challenged Anwar to reveal the reason for dropping Sivakumar in the recent cabinet reshuffle.

“Is it because he was underperforming? What about (economy minister) Rafizi Ramli, who has failed to shine?

“There was also news of health minister (Dr Zaliha Mustafa) scoring ‘D’ for her performance. But instead of being dropped, she was given a new portfolio,” he added.

Sivakumar, who is DAP’s deputy secretary-general, had been implicated in a scandal involving the recruitment of foreign workers. Subsequently, the contracts for five of his officers were axed.

P Waytha Moorthy

Meanwhile, Malaysian Advancement Party (MAP) president P Waytha Moorthy also criticised the reshuffle.

“Dancing to MGR songs and quoting the Thirukural is not sufficient to resolve the community’s woes. We need a representative in the cabinet to raise issues,” he added in a Facebook posting.

Anwar has a penchant for dancing to the tunes of the late Tamil actor MGR when canvassing for Indian votes. During his recent budget speech, he also quoted a verse from the Thirukkural, a classic Tamil text. - Mkini