KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 – Officials in Putrajaya will huddle with a team of professionals over the next few months to formulate a comprehensive plan aimed at “rescuing” the country’s Indian poor, in an apparent effort by Barisan Nasional (BN) to cement their support from the community ahead of an election expected soon.
The initiative, announced today by Datuk Seri G. Palanivel (picture), is expected to be finalised during a roundtable conference to be chaired by Datuk Seri Najib Razak, which is expected to be called by July.
Among others, the conference will include representatives from the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry, International Trade and Industry Ministry, Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, Women’s Development Department, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli), Singapore Indian Development Association, Entrepreneur Economic Fund (Tekun), Petronas, Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Securities Commission (SC), Indian contractors, businessmen, academicians, consultants bankers and those in the agriculture industry.
Palanivel, who was appointed to the post of lead minister for Indian affairs under Najib’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) last year, said the government could not take its Indian support for granted, despite reports that the community has begun returning to BN’s fold.
“The prime minister must help us. He has to give us a sizeable budget to take the Indian community out of their present problems,” he told a press conference here after meeting with several think tank groups on the proposed initiative.
“For the Indian support to return to BN, we need to rescue the people. The more we do that, the more our support will grow.
“We cannot depend on the existing support and be confident that everyone has come back to us. The more we help them, the more they grow confident and the more our support will grow.”
It has been more than four years since over 30,000 members of the Indian community marched during the infamous Hindraf gathering in November 2007 to protest against allegedly unfair policies of the BN government.
The Indian community has long been seen as a “fixed deposit” vote bank for BN but Hindraf’s march to the Petronas Twin Towers blew the lid on the group’s simmering frustration over being left out of development for decades.
The tumultuous event, together with Bersih’s first march for free and fair elections, have been credited for the staggering losses suffered by the ruling coalition during the March 8, 2008, general election.
The historic polls saw BN only taking 140 seats in the 222-seat Parliament, losing its customary two-thirds majority, as well as four state governments and Kelantan, which has remained in PAS hands for 20 over years. A coalition needs 112 MPs to gain a simple majority and 148 to win two-thirds.
However since then, the now outlawed Hindraf movement has split up, with some leaders favouring the BN government while others have aligned themselves with the federal opposition or grown completely disenchanted with both coalition.
