Letter from WMP to PM on for Indians Poverty and Pemudah

HINDRAF
135-3 JALAN TOMAN 7
KEMAYAN SQUARE 70200
SEREMBAN.


Y.A.B. DATO’ SERI ABDULLAH AHMAD BADAWI
Prime Minister of Malaysia
Block Utama,
Bangunan Perdana Putra, Email: reduceredtape@pmo.gov.my
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan, Email: abdullah@kdn.gov.my
62502 Putrajaya Tel: 03 8888 8000
Fax: 03 8888 3444

07/08/2008

Y.A.B,

Re: 1) Height of Indian poor wanting to sell his kidney to start a new Small
Business.
2) Proposals - Pemudah like Task Force, Commission


We were moved by the Tamil Nesan news report dated 22/07/08 at page 13 on one Murali [35] who was declared a bankrupt because his identity card got lost and was misused in a RM 36,000.00 loan. Murali is an asthma patient his wife a breast cancer patient having gone through eight treatments. He has four children aged between five and 14 years old and going to school.

He gets a Socso pension of RM 368.00 per month and RM 100 per month from the welfare department for his school going child. His total income per month is RM 468.00 which is way below the hardcore poverty line index of RM 687.00 per urban household of five [NST 18/05/08 page 26]. RM 1,500.00 per month being the maker for urban poverty [NST 28/06/08 page 23], RM 2,000.00 per below being in the lower income group [NST focus 13/07/08 page 32].

The average household income for an Indian family has been declared in the Mid term review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan as RM 3,799.00 [NST 27/06/08 page eight]. Murali’s family and thousands of other Indians and in fact at least 85% of the Indians do not earn RM 3799, 00 per month. This RM 3,799.00 per month figure certainly does not reflect the ground reality and appears merely speculative. Murali out of desperation has decided to sell his kidney to raise funds for capital to start a new business. Murali’s case is just the tip of the iceberg.

Hundreds of thousands of Indians are in Murali’s shoes. Baitulmal, Pusat Zakat, Vayasan Islam, Badan Amal, badan kebajikan etc. would not help him. TV3, Utusan, NST, Star and Berita Harian would never help publicize the serious Indian plight according to it’s gravity. UMNO, PKR, DAP and PAS would not campaign these very serious Indian poor issues. Felda, Felcra, Risda, Kejora, Kada, Project Agropolitan would not give Murali a business license to run a bus stop kiosk nor the UMNO Federal give him a taxi license. What alternative does Murali have? He and his family lie on the railway tracks and kill themselves as happened to the Indian family in Seramban last year?
Incidentally the Indian suicide rate is 800% higher that for the Malays because of poverty and poverty related issues. Unlike the Malays, Orang Asli, the natives of Sabah and Sarawak who have their inherited villages and even the Chinese who have their new Villages to fall back on, Murali and hundreds of thousands of other Indians have no where else to go to. Almost all the Indians do not have a village to fall back on or as a safety net.

We hereby propose that the Federal UMNO government set up a Permudah like high level task force with impeccable action oriented results in a short space of time to seriously address the critical Indian issues as per our 18 point demands to the prime minister dated 12/08/07.
This task force should be co chaired by the Chief Secretary to the Government and Hindraf Legal Adviser and to also be comprised of the Secretaries Generals of the Finance Ministry, Welfare Ministry, and the Directors Generals of the Economic Planning Unit.
plementation Unit, Secretary to the Prime Minister and social scientists to be nominated by Hindraf but to the exclusion of all “wayang kulit” and “mandore” political parties. A budget of RM 35 Billion is set aside annually.

This special task force is eventually to be replaced by a Race Relations Commission [to eliminate all forms racism and religious extremism] and an Equal Opportunities Commission in furtherance to Article 8 of the Federal Constitution [Equality before the law]

Kindly revert to us accordingly.


Thank you,


Yours faithfully,


…………………………….
P.. Waytha Moorthy
Chairman

CC:

Y.A.B Mr Lim Guan Eng
Chief Minister's Office,
Level 28,
KOMTAR,
10502 Penang
tel: 04-650 5112
fax: 04-261 3003
limguaneng@penang.gov.my