NGO's RM540mil poser for Palanivel and boss

 

Copingo, a coalition of Penang Indian NGOs, is demanding answers from BN leaders about the RM540 million supposedly allocated to the Indian community.

Copingo chairperson N Ganesan directed the questions at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and MIC president G Palanivel.

He said Najib has been bandying this number about for some time but nothing tangible seems to have come forth for the Indian community from the expenditure.

"The allocation is an illusory allocation, just another deception," he told Malaysiakini.

Ganesan (left) said the growth of the underclass among the Indians seems to be untouched, the evictions of displaced Indian estate workers is happening even today and there has been no real attempt at a resettlement programme for these workers.

He added that single mothers continue to face daily miseries and suffer in silence.

Ganesan also noted that the statelessness issue is not getting serious attention now as compared to before the general election.

"Tamil primary schools continue pretty much in their dilapidated condition despite some hand-outs and a few additional schools being built.

"The RM540 million seems not to have done anything for these critical problems," he said.

'The great deception'

Recently, Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia chairperson P Waythamoorthy asked Palanivel to account for the money.

However, the MIC president said that he was only aware of the RM38 million allocation to the Indian community.

Ganesan said in refusing to be held accountable for the RM540 million, Palanivel is effectively kicking the ball back to his boss.

"But we hardly hear a whimper from his boss, who like a broken record only repeats he has spent RM540 million for the Indian community, more than any prime minister in the history of the country," he added.

Ganesan said Najib is "really guilty of a much larger sin of deception" than the RM540 million alleged allocation.

He reminded that Najib had signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Indian community, represented by Hindraf on April 18 last year.

Ganesan said that 16 months later, Najib has not delivered even one ringgit of the items he signed for in that contract.

"In this one act, Najib has effectively delivered to the Indian community one of the largest deceptions in the history of post-independence Malaysia," he added.