Subramaniam (right) said the special task force was not formed solely to regain lost Indian support. — Pictures by Jack Ooi
They believe that MIC will still remain the same under Samy Vellu’s chosen successor, deputy president Senator Datuk G. Palanivel.
The 74-year-old Kluang-born politician recently announced that he will step down as MIC president in January after leading the party since 1979.
Eric Maniam told The Malaysian Insider that it does not matter who leads MIC as long as the party
Nadison Raju believes BN was not concerned about the community’s welfare — only the votes.
“I do not see any difference if Samy Vellu is the president or not. MIC will still remain the same. I don’t think there [will be] much changes with the new leadership.
“Palanivel may be able to get more support from the Indian community but I don’t think it will be much. What we want is for MIC to help us. We don’t care who is the president,” said the 48-year-old lorry driver.
Baboorajan Burachan added that the party will not be any different under Palanivel.
“They will always claim that they want to help but we have not seen anything. There is no difference if Samy (Vellu) is not the president. We cannot say but maybe MIC will able to recapture the support of the Indian community with Palanivel. Samy has been the president for too long so anybody after him will be a boost to the party,” said the 51-year-old electrician.
Raja, 40, stressed that BN must also be blamed for MIC’s lack of support.
“We cannot only blame MIC because BN is also the same. Everybody is guilty. How does BN expect the Indian community to trust them especially after how they have treated us?
“They only bothered to take notice of us when Pakatan Rakyat took over Selangor. Pakatan is not stingy, when we ask for help and they will give us. Our school asked for RM25,000 and they gave us but BN gave us nothing.
“Back then we only asked for RM500 but they refused but now they want to give us everything. They had to only give us a little a bit and we would have supported them. We are not greedy,” said the father of four.
Earlier, the Special Implementation Task Force (SITF) held a meet-the-people programme at a Tamil primary school in Sungai Pelek, few kilometres away from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
The event was attended by the programme’s co-ordinator, Human Resource Minister and MIC vice-president Datuk S. Subramaniam
The SITF was set up by the Cabinet Committee for the Indian community to bring together various government agencies to the help the community resolve its grouses.
The agencies involved are the National Registration Department to handle the issuance of birth certificates and identity cards; the Social Welfare Department and Skill Development Department to offer skill training for the youths; Tekun Nasional to provide small business loans; and the Social Security Organisation.
Vasanthi urged the government to continue its community programmes to regain support from the Indian community.
“When we ask asked for something and they will say yes but no action. We can only ask but cannot have any action. They love to make promises but have never fulfilled any of them. What can we do? They only love to talk. Our assemblymen back then made a lot of promises and then disappeared without anything. Only near election then can we only see his face.
“Like today’s programme, it has been done before but we only see it when [an] election is nearby. They only come when they want our votes,” said the 62-year-old grandfather.
However, not all the attendees were cynical over the government efforts. One, Vasanthi Kumaran, commended the government and said such programmes must be continued to gain back the community’s support.
“It is a very good thing what MIC is doing. MIC should continue doing this programme to help the Indian community. I do not want to comment on Samy Vellu, but with the right people and direction then the party should be able to regain the support of the Indian community,” said the 38-year-old housewife.
Later during a press conference, Subramaniam denied that SITF programmes were part of BN’s strategy to regain back the Indian electorate.
“This is done under the Cabinet committee which was formed by the prime minister after 2008 to solve and indentify issues which are faced by the Indian community so that the community will also feel that they are not alienated and marginalised.
“[There] are many things which the committee is doing so this grassroots interaction is one of the ways in which some of the problems that we are facing can be solved,” he said.
He added that any gain in electoral support from the programmes was only of lesser import.
“And of course as politicians, we also hope that helps and assist us in gaining our support. But that is not the primary aim but that would be the secondary result,” he told reporters while wearing BN t-shirt.
During Election 2008, MIC only managed to retain three of nine parliamentary seats and six of 19 state seats that it contested. - The Malaysian Insider
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