BRIGHTHER FUTURE ONLY THROUGH UNITY, KNOWLEDGE AND ECONOMICAL STRENGTH

(MPKAPAR) Historically, people of Indian origin have been in and out of Malaya for generations. This includes the founding of Malacca by an Indian Prince. Unfortunately however, currently Malaysians are generally only aware that Indians was brought into the country to develop the rubber plantations and to build road and railway by the British. The situation is similar to the Malaysian Government during the premiership of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, which chose to allow Indonesian and Bangladeshi into the country as foreign labourers.

Our leaders during Independence agreed to fulfill certain conditions imposed by British including granting Citizenship for non-Malays, freedom to worship and harmonious living among the races. The cry to ensure that the Malays outshine the other communities in Malaysia started to emerge as the country progressed, recording impressive economic growth rates from the 1980s. The victim of the overall National Development policy was largely the Indian community mainly concentrated in the plantations. Over 300,000 Indian poor have been displaced after the plantations were acquired for property and township development. When evicted from the plantations, these people not only lost their jobs, but more importantly, housing, crèches, basic amenities and socio-cultural facilities.

While, the ruling government policy remains to enrich and entrench Bumiputras in all sectors, our counterparts the Chinese community, with their strong business acumen, already surpass others in Malaysia. Few brilliant Indians survived the tough estate living conditions to become professional such as doctors and lawyers, in their own right, and at times outshining other races in Malaysia due to their parents and siblings sacrifices. However, the Barisan Nasional Government especially then Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamed (tough he himself was half Indian) with their hatred towards Indians, saw the increasing professionals among Indians as very alarming signal. His invisible policies of hatred towards Indians worked very well with support of mandore Samy Vellu.

Imagine the level Indians could have achieved should the ruling Government had sincerely looked at its entire citizens equally without any partiality.

Barisan Nasional manipulated the definition of “National” by setting up Perbadanan Nasional Berhad as an investment arm aimed at uplifting the economy status of the Bumiputras, Perbadanan Usahawan Nasional Berhad as Bumiputra entrepreneur development center and many more. The bodies which aimed to assist the entire Malaysian population ended up functioning only assisting a portion of them. When we demanded for such facilities, they claim it already existed by using the word” National”.

This is what the Indian’s got for their loyalty toward Barisan Nasional. Remember for the ruling government National means Bumiputra.

UNITY

Unity among Malaysians, either inter or intra races, is very important in order for Indians to continue to exist here Malaysia. The diverse cultures, traditions and religions prevent real amalgamation from taking place. While preserving the good practices, we Malaysians need to throw some bad apples away.

We must stop bullying and fighting among ourselves. I remember an incident sometime back when a police man, who was talking to a retail shop owner on his complain that it was the third time he been robbed. “Itu India dengan India punya pasal, kalau berani suruh itu pencuri sentuh kedai Melayu.“ Is that probably how they have been trained? However, this doesn’t mean that Indians should do the same with the others.

We had shown our unity before Independence, remained loyal towards Barisan Nasional for 50 over years. The Indians showed their unity during the unprecedented and historical rally on the 25^th November 2007

It is time for the Temple Management Committees and the Tamil School Boards all over the country to set aside their differences for the betterment of our community.

KNOWLEDGE

Historically, the majority of Indians have been dependent on employment in the rubber plantations and in government and quasigovernment agencies. In 1966, out of the 202,250 Indians employed, 137,150 of them or 67.8 per cent worked in the plantations and 48,850 or 24.2 per cent in the lower rung of the civil service, mainly as menial workers in the railways, Public Works Department and the local councils. As a community, the Indians were low wage earners and a majority of them have always been poor.

Educational knowledge is the only capital we can plough for long term achievement. However, we shouldn’t pawn the knowledge gained with unscrupulous leaders who takes advantage of our poverty to ensure they remain in power.

The cooperation between Schools, Parent Teacher Association (PIBG) and Non Governmental Organization should continue as they have shown tremendous progress at the UPSR Exam level. The good work of mentoring should continue at all levels of education.

We shouldn’t limit knowledge acquisition to just within a few selected professional sectors. There are many new sectors which require the arithmetic skills naturally possessed by us. There isn’t any limitation in acquiring knowledge.

ECONOMIC STRENGTH

We should blame ourselves too for relying too much on the government especially our Cabinet Members, who we have hoped would not leave us empty handed. Whatever benefits that should be coming to the community have already taken siphoned off through the back door by those we depended on.

We need to create a very strong economic foundation in order to remain visible in Malaysia. We had lost almost Trillion ringgit worth of opportunities by investing RM110 million with Maika Holdings. And recently we heard that further RM250million have disappeared from MIED under the same able leader. The Thieves still living among us.

The BN Government will not undertake any move to uplift Indians economically as they will feel threaten. This can be clearly noted when Dr. Mahathir promise to uplift Indian Economy participation to 3 % by 2010 but the Abdullah Administration revised it to 2020. They are not ready to sacrifice even 1.5% for us economically.

We have among us Economic geniuses, Business Magnates, Management Gurus yet we are unable to uplift our own economic situation.

I propose to setup a community development special vehicle to be professionally managed without any political interference. The vehicle should make economic achievement as their main priority by involving themselves in business not only in Malaysia but where ever there are opportunities. Why should we let someone else take our quota of Infrastructure Building from India for an example?

The vehicle should also play a vital role as a mentor by developing mother child business relationship systems.

I believe with the support of the Pakatan Rakyat state Governments and possible upcoming Pakatan Federal Government we will be able to flourish further.

**speech at Forum Perdana , Shah Alam