KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Rights Party (HRP) has lashed out at Pakatan Rakyat, saying it has done little with regard to the Tamil school issue.
HRP pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar described the Selangor government's RM4 million allocation for Tamil schools as “peanuts”.
"I'm not here to undermine the Pakatan Rakyat government but the community's expectations were greater than that,” he told FMT.
“The Selangor state budget a year is RM1.6 billion, but they only give RM4 million. On average, that is only RM41,000 for each (of the 97 Tamil) school in the state. Do you think it's enough?
"What can be done with such a small amount? We cannot even build a canteen or computer lab.” he said.
Uthayakumar said that he was frustrated because Pakatan had failed to keep its election promises
The Indian community, he added, hoped that the Pakatan state governments in Selangor, Kedah and Penang would provide land to all Tamil schools.
There are 58 and 21 Tamil schools in Kedah and Penang respectively.
Schools sit on prime land
According to Uthayakumar, one of the main reasons why Barisan Nasional and Pakatan do not give the land was that Tamil schools are located in prime locations.
"Take the Bangsar Tamil school; the land value is maybe a few millions. The government prefers to have commercial development on these lands,” he said.
Uthayakumar accused the Pakatan state governments of being more interested in money-making schemes instead of exercising social responsibility.
The fundamental thing, he said, was that Tamil schools hoped to have their own land.
“We do not wish to talk about BN, we all know that BN is a racist party. Our hope was on Pakatan,” he added.
Uthayakumar also slammed several Indian leaders in Pakatan, whom he claimed were afraid of speaking out on such issues for fear of losing Malay votes.
“These mandores have become the agents for the 'Tuans in PKR', Taukes in DAP' and 'Tuan Hajis in PAS' to win Indian support. They are the same as MIC, just follow the boss,” he said.
Uthayakumar urged the Pakatan state governments to give a minimum of 10 acres for every Tamil school in Selangor, Kedah and Penang.
"Perhaps, the public may think this is too much, but we must take the future into account. Admissions in Tamil schools have risen over the last few years,” he said.
The Hindraf leader also warned Pakatan that if it did not heed the community's request, then the coalition would lose in the next general election.
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