No Point Beating A Dead Snake

Last week, the Umno Barisan Nasional state assembly woman for Sungai Rapat, Perak Hamidah Osman uttered a racial slur against Indians at the state assembly asking the speaker if he saw a snake and a man of a certain community, who he would kill first. In one of the comments I received, someone pointed out that I have not blogged anything about this. Why should I degrade myself to answer to this slur by an ignorant member of the state assembly. Without doubt, I would never condone anyone degrading Indians or Hindus in general. Is there a need for me to put that in writing.
MIC has already reacted to this latest slur on the community, asking the BN government to initiate action against the state assemblywomen. I want to correct a comment, which stated that the MIC did not react to that attack and that only DAP had done so. Please check your facts before commenting on issues as blogs should not be used to mislead the people who read it.
I would go one step further. Sack her. Use her as an example to the other racially motivated MPs from the BN. We don't mind losing another seat in the state assembly of a state we have already lost. The BN must put its foot down and show other Malaysians that it would not tolerate this sort of nonsense. There is no point in saying that the BN uses the multi religious, multi race approach if stern action is not initiated.

The Government's Promise

The government has promised to set-up a special unit, under the Education Ministry, to assist Tamil schools tackle the problems confonting them.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in making this pledge yesterday said the unit would also be responsible to identify partially-assisted schools to be turned into fully-assisted schools, besides expediting the consolidation of rural Tamil schools with less than 50 students each, Bernama reported.
The Education Ministry will also add more classrooms in the cabin-style at Tamil schools with a big student enrolment to meet their needs.
The BN number two man also said the special unit would also look at other needs like transportation and hostel facilities for Tamil school students.
On the intake of Indian students into local public higher learning institutions, Najib said the policy based on merit had not changed and that Indian students should raise their academic performance to improve their prospects of furthering their studies to tertiary level.
He said as an immediate measure to assist Indian students, those who
wish to join the MIC-run Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST) in Sungai Petani, Kedah to take up critical studies like medicine,
dentistry, law, engineering and pharmacology, could apply for scholarships from
the Public Service Department (PSD).
AIMST is the fifth private university accredited for PSD scholarships after
Monash University, Nottingham University, Curtin University and Swinburne
University.
He said with this recognition, the number of Indian students in the
critical areas of study would increase.
He added that the PSD had also been asked to look at qualified Indian
candidates to be considered for service in the public sector as officers and
staff of other ranks.
"The cabinet committee also wants the vendor sector developed by Petronas
and Proton to be also fairly opened to Indians. With regards to this, a micro credit scheme by Bank Simpanan Nasional has been extended to Indian small traders, besides the small loans from Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia with RM100 million allocated for the purpose."
He said the Human Resource Ministry, meanwhile, was tasked with providing
training to create more barbers and cooks among Indians.
Najib also disclosed that the issue of Indian equity share which had been
raised by the community, would be discussed with Permodalan Nasional Berhad.
He said to ensure that all the efforts to assist the Indian community would
be implemented effectively, the MIC minister and other members in government as
well as MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu would follow up with the
ministries and agencies involved.
Note: This is a promise and pledge made by Najib. I hope the government can and will fulfil whatever that has been said. This is my feverish hope for the community. I am keeping this news clip for future reference. I know many of you will complain, that I have posted something from the news. But I feel, Indians need to say what they think of the DPM promises. I really hope the promise would be kept.

p/s: Mahendran, yes you got that right but not France la bro, Portugal may be! Feels like lost something now that Euro is over and EPL is yet to start.

Its Sad

The weekend was abuzz. From the Anwar issue, Ong Ka Ting and Chan Kong Choy not seeking re-election in MCA as president and deputy president respectively and my colleague and long time friend MIC Youth chief SA. Vigneswaran announcing his decision to quit the party.
It is sad to see Vigneswaran or Vicky, as he is known among friends, to leave the MIC. At a time when we need to consolidate and forge ahead with renewed vigour, we have bickering. It should not have happened.
The reason for Vicky's departure is because the party leadership had decided that those above the age of 41 should vacate their positions in the Youth wing. But this interpretation of the party constitution was not accepted by Vicky, thus the reason to leave.
At a press conference yesterday, he said that he had lost confidence in the president and threatened to open the "Pandora's box" on the happenings within the party.
My earnest request to my friend Vicky is please do not damage the party more. It is already "wounded" from the general election, and we are just picking up the pieces.
I am really sad and disappointed at what has happened but now there is a need to look at the bigger picture.
MIC is 62 years old and has suffered lots of setbacks in the past which we have managed to overcome. The latest setback at the March 8 general election is one of its biggest disappointment, since its inception. MIC is at its lowest and we can't afford a crisis or internal bickering now.
Please think of the party. Put the party above individuals. This is my humble request to all parties involved. We need to get back on our feet and start working.
The latest: T. Mohan has been appointed as MIC Youth Coordinator while S. Murugesan would be his deputy. S. Ramis would head the MIC Youth Advisory Panel.

p/s: Euro Champions Spain. They beat Germany with a 1:0 score. The Spainards have finally done it. Was a good Euro overall with lots of excitement and disappointments.

A Press Statement

Below is a press statement I issued to Bernama today.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 -- The government must set-up a monitoring committee to check on the progress of the proposed unit trust scheme, aimed at increasing corporate equity ownership among ethnic Indians from the present 1.1 per cent to 1.5 per cent by 2010.
In making this call, MIC information chief Datuk M. Saravanan also wanted the government to ensure fair Indian participation in the monitoring committee, comprising professionals, especially bankers and stock market experts, representatives of non-governmental organisations and political parties.
"The committee should ensure the smooth and fair implementation of the scheme. The scheme must receive equal distribution in the community and nobody should complain of being left out."
On Thursday, tabling the mid-term review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that to increase corporate equity ownership among ethnic Indians to 1.5 % by 2010, efforts would be continued to increase access to skills training and entrepreneurship development programmes.
In addition, special assistance will be given to the ethnic Indian community to raise the level of their equity ownership through unit trust schemes, Abdullah had revealed.
Saravanan, who is also Federal Territories deputy minister, also said the unit trust scheme should not be distributed by any single body as this would result in "all sorts allegations" and would be open to abuse.
"The government must ensure that Indians gain from the scheme. It should transparent coming out with regular periodical progress reports to ensure that the people know where their investments are and how it is doing in terms of financial gains.
"There is also a need to ensure that this scheme reaches its target group. There is no point in a few people holding most of the unit trusts. It must be evenly distributed so that the target group benefits. It must also have a safeguard so that only Indians are entitled to the scheme and that units do not pass on from Indians to another race," he added.
On another note, the deputy minister also hoped that the government would provide a one-off grant to all Tamil schools in the country to remedy whatever shortfalls they had.
"This could be as a one off grant. We can solve woes of Tamil schools once and for all. Never again should Tamil schools organise fund raising campaigns to improve the infrastructure of schools. This has become a habit and is becoming a norm.
"Students of these schools are also Malaysian and therefore they should gain from the government's support. We hope this grant can be made available at the tabling of the 2009 Budget," he added. -- BERNAMA

9MP Mid-Term Review: More Questions Than Answers

Yesterday, the Prime Minister tabled the mid-term review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan in Parliament and revealed that the overall ceiling for development allocation for the Plan would be increased from RM200 billion to RM230 billion. Meaning an extra RM30 billion because of the global fuel, food and economic woes.
I have listed below, what Malaysian Indians have been promised. Although, the PM had made a few guarantees, no details of how Indians would gain directly from the mid-term review were announced. Again, we are waiting for the details so that we could better understand and work our way towards achieving the desired targets. I hope that the details would be announced soon.

> To increase corporate equity ownership among ethnic Indians to 1.5 % by 2010, efforts would be continued to increase access to skills training and entrepreneurship development programmes. In addition, special assistance will be given to the ethnic Indian community to raise the level of their equity ownership through unit trust schemes.

Note: Details of this scheme is yet to be announced. Whatever it is, the scheme must be transparent and not tied down to a particular political party or corporation. It must be run by an independent body, comprising of Indian business leaders, who have experiance in the share market.

> Nevertheless, in absolute terms, ethnic Indian equity ownership increased from RM575.2 million or 9 % over the period of 2004-2007.

Note: Even with this increase Indians only account for 1.1 % of total corporate equity ownership as at 2007.

> Lower the overall poverty rate from 5.7 % in 2004 to 3.6 % in 2007, whereby incidences of absolute poverty was reduced from 1.2 % to 0.7 % in 2007; Reduce inter-ethnic, regional and urban-rural economic divides; Develop almost 68,000 new entrepreneurs as well as train more than 120,000 existing entrepreneurs through various entrepreneurial development programs;

Note: How many Indians would gain from these programmes? No details..

> In line with the Government’s aspiration of making National Schools the school of preferred choice for all races, continuous efforts will be directed toward enhancing teaching quality and facilities in National Schools. Among others, the teaching of Mandarin and Tamil languages in National Schools will be further improved.

Note: How is it going to be further improved? Is there going to be allocation to improve Tamil teaching at National Schools? If Yes, how much? How many Tamil teachers would be absorbed into National-type schools?

> Absolute poverty in Malaysia continues to be on the decline. The overall incidence of poverty among Malaysians had been reduced, from 5.7 % in 2004 to 3.6 % in 2007. The number of poor households had also declined by 33 % from 311,300 to 209,000 over the same period. This decline in the incidence and number of poor households is the result of steady economic growth as well as the implementation of various poverty-eradication programs and projects. Poverty had declined in both rural and urban areas. The incidence of urban poverty has been reduced from 2.5 % in 2004 to 2.0 % in 2007; whereas in rural areas, the incidence of poverty has been significantly reduced from 11.9 % to 7.1 %. Hardcore poverty had declined from 1.2 % in 2004 to 0.7 % in 2007. The number of hardcore poor households has declined by 43 %, from 67,300 to 38,400 over the same period. Based on this trend, the Government is confident that the Ninth Malaysia Plan target to eradicate hardcore poverty by 2010 will be achieved. All ethnic groups registered an increase in household income over this period.

In 2007, the average household income of the Bumiputera rose by 5.2 per cent to RM3,156 a month, whereas the average income of ethnic Chinese households rose by 3.0 per cent a year to RM4,853 while that of ethnic Indian households rose by 3.2 per cent to RM3,799.
The disparity between the average income of the Bumiputera community and the Chinese community continued to improve with the disparity ratio declining from 1:1.64 in 2004 to 1:1.54 in 2007. Similarly, the disparity with the Indian community also improved, from 1:1.27 to 1:1.20 over the same period.

> Measures would continue to be undertaken to encourage the private sector to employ more staff from Bumiputera, Indian and minority communities at professional and managerial levels. Furthermore, more non-Bumiputera will be encouraged to work in the public sector.

Note: How are we going to ask the private sector, largely owned by the Chinese, to take in Malays and Indians at professional and managerial levels? Are they willing? And how is the government going to encourage non-Bumis to work in the public sector? If they do join the civil service, what levels would they be employed in? Would non-bumis be given positions of Directors, Director-General and Secretary-General positions at Ministries or government agencies. What about non-bumi participation in Government-linked-companies? Would it be increased and again what positions would non-bumis be allowed to occupy?

Lots of questions to be answered by the relevant government bodies. Only time will tell.....

I don't mean to sound like a racist...but as a leader in a political party, which represents Indians, I have to ask these questions. This does not mean, that I do not care for the other Malaysians out there. Please understand that the Malaysian Indian community lags way behind the Chinese and Malays. One of my many aims as a politician is to bring them on par with the other major communities in the country.

p/s: Euro scores: Spain 3 Russia 0. It would be a good final. Germany vs Spain.