‘DAP’s blueprint for Indians not enough’

PETALING JAYA: DAP launched a 14-point blueprint for the Indian community but the Malaysian Indian Business Association (MIBA) wants more.

Their president P Sivakumar said the blueprint has addressed some of the points that were left out in the Pakatan Rakyat manifesto but he feels that a few more points should be added.

Sivakumar, widely tipped to be a DAP candidate in Johor, said this was because the Indians need an extended catching up period.

“This is to settle the ‘debt’ owing to the long discrimination and marginalisation under the New Economic Policy,” he said.

“So much so, a major cross-section of the community has become seriously alienated from the system,” he added

He proposed an extra six points should be added to the blueprint. Some of the points proposed by MIBA are:

• Call for a second chance programme to give amnesty to blacklists and bankrupts within the Indian community.

• Ten percent of Indians to be appointed at the directors and executive levels in all critical government agencies, government linked companies and government linked banks.

• Increase of land banks for Indians in agriculture and animal husbandry together with special allocations for infrastructure and grants for seed, feed and animals from the Ministry of Agricultural Developement.

According to Sivakumar, a total of RM14 billion is spent to import vegetables and meat every year.

“These points proposed by us could help reduce the spending of the government and at the same time raise the standards of living for the minorities who live in Malaysia,” he said.

MIBA said they are looking to follow the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) which has been very effective in addressing the pressing educational and socio-economic issues facing the community.

“Even Charles Santiago (Klang MP) agreed with me when we proposed to follow SINDA’s work to uplift the Indian community,” he said.

Yesterday, DAP launched a 14-point blueprint for the betterment of the Indian community which will be added on to the Pakatan manifesto.

It was launched by DAP’s advisor Lim Kit Siang who will contest in Gelang Patah in the next general election.

The blueprint tagged “The Gelang Patah Declaration: Vision and strategy for Indian Empowerment” had stated 14 points which is expected to improve the standard of living for the Indians.

Sivakumar, who was among the DAP leaders who spoke at the event, had raised the need to incorporate these additional proposals to the DAP blueprint.

DAP’s Gelang Patah Declaration
The DAP’s blueprint for the Indian community meanwhile promised:

• To resolve the problem of the stateless Indians within 100 days of a Pakatan administration;

• To establish a National Housing Board which will build decent and affordable housing for marginalised groups, especially for displaced Indian plantation workers;

• To ensure that all national-type Tamil schools become fully-funded and the infrastructure of every single school is up to par with ‘sekolah kebangsaan’ (national schools);

• To invest in technical and vocational training coupled with apprenticeship programmes to provide an alternative education and career path for school dropouts from low-income Indian families;

• To provide jobs and raise the wages of low-income Indians by implementing a-RM1,100 minimum wage scheme;

• To increase the number of Indians in GLCs (government-linked companies), local councils, and public services;

• To alienate land for existing Hindu temples and burial grounds and find replacement land for temples and burial grounds which have to be relocated;

• To provide microcredit and other financial assistance schemes to Indian small businesses, with a special focus on women, youths and home-based business;

• To put in place the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) and to eliminate deaths in police custody and custodial deaths;

• To establish a special fund to promote Indian equity ownership in the country;

• To establish a commission to address urban poverty and social problems faced by the Indian community;

• To establish policies that could economically enable single mothers, including house ownership scheme;

• To establish or enroll in existing residential schools outstanding Indian students from plantation and urban poor families; and

• To abolish all anti-rakyat legislation and to get rid of discrimination.

DAP leaders are hoping that their Pakatan partners – PKR and PAS – would endorse this blueprint if Pakatan forms the next government.