Welcoming Speech
by M.Kula Segaran

(Parliament, Sunday): We had earlier organized a similar Round Table discussion entitled “The 9thMalaysia Plan who really benefits? Indians and other minorities”. I have given notice to Parliament to discuss the issues which were deliberated at the forum by way of an adjournment speech at the next sitting of Parliament.

The Prime Minister tabled the 9th Malaysian Plan (9MP) on 31st March 2006 in the Dewan Rakyat. The 9MP involves a total sum of RM220billian for the period between 2006 and 2010.

The Indian community constitute about 8 per cent of the total population of Malaysia. The question uppermost in the minds and hearts of members of the Indian community is: What equity and socio-economic justice are in store for them, after having been bypassed and neglected or short-changed by earlier Malaysian Plans?

The Indians have the highest school dropout rate, the lowest life expectancy rate (67.3 years as compared to the national average of 71.2 years. Indians claim the highest rate of suicide of any community. Violent crime is disproportionately shared by Indians
They also have the highest unemployment rate, the highest alcoholic rate and the highest single-mother rate. The increasing social problems are an indication of the continued marginalization of the Indians. What more are in store for us?

And in 2003, Astro pulled out at the last minute a News Focus Asia programmed on the “Indian Underclass” in Malaysia.

No five-year economic plans since independence in 1957 have considered Malaysian Indians as a distinct minority with its own special problems. Neither does the 9th Malaysia plan. However unlike other plans the 9th MP gives a minor concession- it aims to get Indians to a 3% of corporate equity by 2020
The plan also envisages:
1)      More opportunities to Indian community to participate in selected unit trust schemes.
2) Participation of the Indian community in the economy will be enhanced.
3)    Appropriate measures such as financial assistance will be introduced to encourage the Indian community to venture into business.
4)    Training programs will be made more accessible to potential and capable entrepreneurs at the National Entrepreneurial Institute.

It further states Indians average gross monthly household income in 2004 is RM3,456 compared with Bumiputeras RM 2,711 and Malaysian average was RM 3,249 implying the Indians are out performing Bumiputeras and average Malaysians. Is this statistic true? Ordinary Malaysian Indians cannot agree with this figures.

The figures used by the government in the 9MP to portray a glowing picture of the socio-economic situation of Malaysian Indians reminds us of Darrel Huff’s book “How To Lie with Statistics”

It is suspiciously clear that the government is trying to play and juggle with statistics and an out right lie to give a false picture that Malaysian Indians are doing very well, better then the Chinese and the Bumiputeras.

I would like to call upon the government to hold a full day National seminar on this issue so that their statistics could be questioned and scrutinized thoroughly by the experts in an open manner. The Prime Minister and the entire Cabinet should be present for questioning by Malaysians and these statistics and figures.

How long more is the government going to play around and lie with statistics in order to deny that Malaysian Indian community need of urgent social-economic assistance? How much longer is the BN component parties going to be in complicity with this criminal neglect of the Malaysian Indian community?

The Indians have been referred to as the “Forgotten Community” - “Many of Malaysia’s poor are Indians” and they have become “the new Underclass” many of them feeling like “third-class citizens” in Malaysia and “real losers” since the introduction of the NEP.

We don’t need today the facts and figures of this criminal neglect. They are already well known. Today we demand answers and target dates. When and how many billions of ringgit will the Government spend in the form of real and effective AFFARMITIVE ACTION to up lift the social economic position of the Malaysian Indian community. From now on, that question is enough. It is the most direct and most pertinent question we need ask. There is no point any longer to waste time and energy on plans and arguments. We have been doing that for almost 50years since attainment of Merdeka. Presently the vast majority are in dire need of social-economic help. Thus a policy in the form of affirmative action is urgently needed to be implemented to help the Indian community by the government.

The Malaysian Indian community cannot be deceived any longer. They do not want to hear new promises made to cover up the old broken promises.

One solution to better the lot of Indians and the other minorities is to have a Minority Affairs Ministry to look into matters, which hamper the minority ethnic races in the country
Such a Ministry would enable minority ethnic groups to rapidly catch up with the advancement of the major races in the country.