Najib and Tamil school make history

His visit to the Simpang Lima Tamil School in Klang on May 29 will be the first in recent times by a Prime Minister

KLANG: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s proposed visit to the Simpang Lima Tamil School in Klang on May 29 would be a historic one as he would the first PM to visit a Tamil school.

The visit would also demonstrate Najib’s seriousness in tackling the woes of the predominantly Tamil-speaking Malaysian Indian community.

Political observers say it is certain to boost Najib’s image among the nearly two million Indians, a large number of whom deserted the BN at the 2008 general election.

They were partly blamed for the crushing defeat suffered by the BN, which lost four states – Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor, and denied BN its two-thirds majority in Parliament Perak is back in the hands of the ruling coalition after three opposition state assemblymen declared that they were turning Independents in favour of the BN.

Although Najib’s visit had been planned some time ago, political pundits say it underlines importance of winning back the Indian votes, especially in recapturing Selangor.

“Only last week (opposition leader) Anwar (Ibrahim) came to Klang to meet with Indian leaders. Now its Najib’s turn.

“This only goes to show that the Indian votes are pivotal for any party harbouring hopes of  capturing Selangor…this is a fact,” said an observer who declined to be named.

The May 29 function is organised by the Selangor Tamil School Headmasters council.

‘Goodies’ on the cards?
Najib is slated to present gold medals to 668 Indian students in Selangor who scored straight As in the UPSR exams over the last three years.

Klang based philanthropist and businessman P Thiagarajan is the key player in bringing Najib to the school, touted to be the largest Tamil school in the country with 2,300 students.

Thiagarajan, also known as OMS Thiagarajan, is the single largest individual supporter of Tamil schools in  Selangor. He is underwriting the cost of the function on May 29.

“Over the decade, Thiagarajan has forked out close to RM3mil of his own cash for education-related projects.

“He donated RM800,000 for the construction of the new wing of the four-storey building. The total cost was RM1.3 million,” said a source.

The function was to be originally held at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur Thiagarajan persuaded Najib to have the event at the school instead, a source told FMT.

It is learnt that 15,000 Indians from Selangor would attend the event.

There is also speculation that the prime minister would announce some “goodies”  for the school.

The  Simpang Lima is also the first Tamil school picked as a cluster school among the 30 schools appointed under the education ministry’s cluster of excellent schools programme.