Hindraf queries move to revive Indian affairs panel

 

Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia (PHM) secretary P Ramesh has questioned the government’s move to revive the Cabinet Committee on Indian Affairs, asking whether it is a panicked move to restore Indian Malaysian support for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s leadership.

Ramesh said such a move was doomed to fail, because other committees targeted at the Indian Malaysian community had failed, and people have already lost faith in the government.

“If the PM is trying to appease the Indian community that he is keeping to his promises by reviving the dead cabinet committee, he is unmistakably wrong on his assessment of the psyche of the Indian community.

“The Indian community has had enough of the BN’s broken promises and their wayang kulit (shadow play) along with their Indian political allies. They have totally lost hope in the MIC,” Ramesh said in a statement today.

According to the online news portal Free Malaysia Today, Najib yesterday chaired the dormant committee’s first meeting since 2010.

'PHM blueprint the only option'

Quoting unnamed sources in the Prime Minister’s Office, it says those who attended included MIC president and Natural Resources and Environment Minister G Palanivel, Health Minister and MIC deputy president Dr S Subramaniam, MIC vice-president and Deputy Youth and Sports Minister M Saravanan, and MIC central working committee member and Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan.

Meanwhile, Ramesh also took the opportunity to reiterate that PHM’s blueprint of socio-economic reforms is Najib’s ‘only option’ for a comprehensive solution to the Indian community’s problems, saying that piecemeal solutions won’t work.

“There is no point flogging a dead horse. Just get cracking and implement the promises made in the general election wholeheartedly, with the help of sincere people out there who are really committed to helping the community.

“Hindraf urges the BN component parties to review their decision not to honour their election promises,” he said.

The blueprint is central to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the association and BN prior to the 13th general election, which dealt mostly with establishing a committee to oversee the blueprint’s implementation.

It was under the terms of the same MOU that PHM chief P Waythamoorthy was appointed as a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

He resigned from the post last month, after holding it for just eight months, claiming that the government has not honoured the terms of the MOU.