MIC delegate: Indians should leave 'unequal' M'sia

By FMT Team

KUALA LUMPUR: In a fiery speech, a MIC delegate from Kedah called on Indians to leave Malaysia and seek a better life elsewhere.

M Ramachandran, from the party's Kulim division, said the government was not offering enough
opportunities to the Indian community despite their sacrifices for the nation over the last 150 years.

“We are citizens of this nation and they (the ruling party) come to us for votes. But what do we get in return? We are only looked at when it's election time but after that we are forgotten.

“We are labelled with all sorts of names, so why stay here? We need to migrate to another country which offers equal opportunity to all,” he told the MIC annual general assembly here.

Meanwhile, Sri Serdang MIC division delegate K Subramaniam took a swipe at Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's 1Malaysia concept.

He asked how can the concept be achieved when racial segregation still exists in the country.

“The PM is going around with the 1Malaysia slogan but we are still being differentiated using the bumiputera and non-bumiputera status. How can you achieve 1Malaysia with this?” he added.

Subramaniam was also cynical about Najib's promise that students who excelled in their SPM examinations would be entitled for Public Service Department grants to further their studies.

“My question now is will they allow Indian students to get more than 9A's after this. I doubt it very much,” he said.

'Don't blame MIC'

Sepang division's M Uthayakumar slammed Barisan Nasional component parties for blaming MIC for the 2008 general election debacle.

“Umno lost 40 parliamentary seats, MCA lost about 25 seats while MIC lost only six seats. How can you blame MIC alone, it is a collective responsibility of the entire ruling coalition.

“In fact, it was the Indian votes that led BN to win during the recent Bagan Pinang and Hulu Selangor by-elections,” he added.

In a related development, MIC president S Samy Vellu chastised delegates who were absent from the assembly, which entered its second and final day today.

“There were about 1,500 delegates yesterday but today only 726 delegates are present. We prepared decent lodging and food in order to honour your presence to this important meeting. It is not cheap as we had to spend more than RM200,000 for the AGM and yet most are absent,” he said

Samy Vellu warned that grassroots leaders who are not devoted to the party would be replaced.

Report by S Retnanathan, G Vinod and B Nantha Kumar