Ex-detainee: 8 reasons why Indians should vote PAS - Malaysiakini

Ex-ISA detainee and Hindraf activist K Vasanthakumar has spelled out eight issues which will help sway the Indian community in PAS' favour at the upcoming Bagan Pinang by-election.

The eight issues are Tamil schools, Hindu death rites and rituals, unregistered temples and churches, job opportunities and agriculture, low-cost housing, Indian heritage villages and community halls, and poverty.

PAS Negeri Sembilan chief Zulkefly Mohd Omar is facing former Umno vice-president Mohd Isa Samad in the Oct 11 by-election for the state seat where Indians make up more than 20 percent of voters.

“There are seven Tamil schools of which one is a fully-aided school. Several of them are located in estates managed by government-linked corporation Sime Darby, and yet none of these schools have complete facilities,” said the Hindraf activist who was released from Internal Security Act detention four months ago.

“One school has no access road and another - SRJK(T) Sungai Salak Lukut Estate - is the only Tamil school in Malaysia that occupies a shoplot where the Parents Teachers Association is currently forking out RM1,600 monthly for rental,” he lamented.

“The school, formerly in the Sungai Salak Lukut Estate, was supposed to be relocated but nothing has been done,” added Vasanthakumar.

He also blamed the BN government for the lack of a fully maintained and proper burial and cremation ground in the constituency.

The current one - the Sri Mahamariamman Temple Cremation and Burial Ground - is in a dilapidated shape, said Vasanthakumar.

According to him, the Indian community does not have an allocated area in Port Dickson to conduct prayers for the dead.

As for the temples and churches, Vasanthakumar quipped that “these place of worship would be demolished soon as most of them are located on plots along the roadsides on land that don't belong to them”.

Job opportunities for the Indian minorities are also severely lacking in the government sector.

“These people are hoping to join low-level entry jobs in the government and yet none get the jobs. These people end up as labourers. A few are taxi drivers or run sundry shops,” he said.

Vasanthakumar also complained that Isa Samad has failed to provide low-cost housing in his more than two decades as menteri besar.

The failure of the BN to declare three Indian-majority areas as heritage villages is also a sore point for the Hindraf activist as there is already an Orang Asli village.

The lack of a common hall for the Indian community is also a point of contention.

Vasanthakumar added that the BN administration failed to uplift the economic standing of the Indians as most of them are still living below the poverty line.

Uthayakumar to launch boycott campaign

These are the issues that would be raised by Vasanthakumar when he addresses approximately 1,000 Indians at the Sungai Salak Lukut Tamil school tonight as part of the by-election campaign.

Vasanthakumar appeared unfazed when asked about the prospects of him being detained again as the restrictions imposed on him after his ISA release have yet to be lifted.

“I am ready to face any consequences for the betterment of the Indian society,” he said. However, the authorities have lifted the restrictions on fellow detainee and Kota Alam Shah state representative M Manoharan early this week.

Meanwhile, former brother-at-arms P Uthayakumar who now leads Human Rights Party (HRP) refused to comment on Vasanthakumar's action, who will be campaigning for the opposition Pakatan Rakyat in Bagan Pinang.

According to Uthayakumar, he “doesn't want intra-fighting among Indians since their common enemy is Umno.”

Vasanthakumar and Uthayakumar have a public falling out where the former was accused for being a turncoat.

Sources close to Uthayakumar disclosed that the Hindraf leader and his followers would be asking the Indians in Bagan Pinang to boycott the by-election because “while Umno is race-based, Pakatan Rakyat is vote-based.”

The HRP is expected to start their boycott campaign this weekend by distributing VCDs on the Shah Alam cow-head protest and Kampung Buah Pala.