The UMNO led Malaysian government’s Agriculture and Agro based Industry Minister gives out free rice 200,000 coupons for poor Malaysians (The Sun 14/10/09 at page 6). But we are yet to hear of the first Indian poor to receive his first bag of free rice. But then this is possible under Prime Minister Najib’s One Malaysia! Editor.
The UMNO led Malaysian government’s Agriculture and Agro based Industry Minister gives out free rice 200,000 coupons for poor Malaysians (The Sun 14/10/09 at page 6). But we are yet to hear of the first Indian poor to receive his first bag of free rice. But then this is possible under Prime Minister Najib’s One Malaysia! Editor.
By Naragan N.
Yesterday and today the last remaining structures of Kampung Buah Pala are to be torn down – the cow barns. The cattle farmers of Kampung Buah Pala have no alternative land yet. The cows are going to be stranded, literally in the streets. But who cares?
When a pig slaughterhouse was demolished in Kedah recently, the sole DAP rep in the Kedah State Government there caused an uproar by threatening to resign and the issue was immediately resolved. If the affected farmers had been Malay cattle farmers, they would have been courted and alternative land would have been provided by one of the several government agencies set up expressly for this purpose. But this is an Indian farmer and so no one really cares.
This is marginalization in real life and blood. This has been going on right from the beginning of Malaya, then Malaysia. Very systematic marginalization. Till today there is still no political will in the governing coalitions both at the Federal and the State level to resolve these critical problems. The only way we can see that these problems will be resolved is when the Indians get into the mainstream of National Development.
Let me try and briefly explain how the Indians have been blocked systematically from getting into the mainstream of National Development - in this scenario in the Agricultural sector contributing to the marginalization we so often speak out about. The real world effect of all this is what we see happening in front of our very own eyes – in KBP.
From the 1950s there has been significant development in the Agricultural sector spearheaded by government agencies such as FELDA, FELCRA, RISDA, FAMA and many others (see list of these agencies at the footnote).
And for these 50 odd years we all know how the rural Indian population mainly from the estates have been systematically pushed out and excluded from benefiting from any of these efforts. This was through the period of the fragmentation of the plantations (from the 50s through to the 80s) and then massive eviction from land as a result of the development of the land for various purposes (from the late 70s through to now). They have all been turned over into the urban poor.
All of this, through the working of the racist UMNO policies. In fact the NEP of the last 40 odd years, was supposed to erase identification of race with occupation. It has done exactly the opposite in the Agricultural sector. The estate Indians were thrown out of that sector and that sector has effectively been turned into a monopoly almost of the Malays. Billions and billions of our National resource has been spent in this sector over this period, but the Indians gained nothing from it all. This is a direct result of the policies of the racist UMNO -a Malaysian version of Apartheid.
Now a new and even more significant chapter is opening up in the Agricultural Sector and I suspect many of us are not aware of the significance of what is happening or about to happen. In just the last 2-3 years the development policy of the government has changed to accelerate development in the Agricultural sector to make it the 3rd engine of growth, besides Manufacturing and Information technology, the other engines of economic growth.
What this means is that there is going to be a tremendous amount of expansion in this sector. A further large amount of the national resource is going to be invested to develop this sector into the engine of growth – like the Multimedia Super Corridor effort, the e- Government effort, the CyberCities and so on to develop the Information Technology Sector. A total ecosystem is going to be created to facilitate the development of this sector. Billions and billions are again going to be spent to develop the potential in this sector.
The functions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Base Industry has been increased and related agencies have been restructured to support and facilitate this strategic initiative. The stated objective is to evenly develop all aspects of supply chain management within the agriculture and agro-base industry – from seed production, production, post-harvest handling, storage, logistics, grading, labeling, packaging, transporting, retailing, wholesaling, marketing, branding, processing, up to the point where the goods are sold to consumers (from farm to table).
A ‘Cluster’-based development of zones of production not unlike the Fruits Production Zones, the Target Area Concentration, the Aquaculture Zone Industry and the Modern Agriculture Project and Permanent Food Production Park are also in the making. The same cluster based development effort as in the Manufacturing sector.
Marketing, Research and Development and Business Development are all slated for expansion in this sector. To enable all of this the Entrepreuner and Cooperative Development Ministry has been folded into the Rural and Regional Development (RRD) Ministry and new functions have been introduced into the RRD Ministry and its various units.
The Tekun program has been converted from an Enterpreuner financing agency to a strategic Entrepreuner development agency, now within the RRD Ministry. This is a significant program with budgets in the Billions of Ringgits.
The SMIDEC ( Small and Medium Industry Development Corporation) has been expanded and renamed to become the Small and Medium Enterprise Corporation. The National SME Development Council Secretariat Function of Bank Negara has been folded into the SME Corporation.
Bank Pertanian has been corporatized and now operates as the Agro Bank, the official disbursement agency for the government of all the funds going into the sector.
Special Bumiputra only financing schemes have been rolled out by various banks. One example is the SPED scheme of the Bank Rakyat. They give out loans from RM 30,000 to RM 500,000. One of the eligibility is unashamedly that the applicant must be a Bumiputra.
Various educational Institutuions such as University Putra Malaysia, UiTM, Risda College, Felda Academy are collaborating strategically to produce the skilled manpower needed for this expansion.
All of the above, without exception is meant only for Bumiputras with a few crumbs thrown out to the partner political party local heads and their relatives and cronies for their connivance to maintain status quo. Tell me if I am wrong.
I know several small Indian livestock farmers, a few aspiring young farmers and I can see that at best they get cursory assistance, not the womb to tomb kind of assistance that the Malay farming community gets or is about to get with all of this. These small livestock farmers operate on TNB land under power cables or on railway land or on some land like KBP, all waiting to be evicted someday destroying even that little participation in this part of the economy. There is very little benefit for the Indian farmers or aspiring farmers or Entrepreuners from any of these programs, in fact they are about to be obliterated from this sector totally, given what we see going on.
From all of this, you can see on the one hand, the scale of things that is happening in the country for the development of the Agricultural Sector – in what we call the mainstream of National Development. On the other hand,we know from whatever little is published or from our own experience that the Indians have been totally excluded from this mainstream of development.
This is how the system operates to to block Indians from the development process. They are left to be where they are and to use the little resources they have to try and get out of their predicament.
All of this must change. The only organization in the country that can speak up in these terms for the Indians now is Hindraf and the Human Rights Party. Please see the proposal for the 2010 Budget by the HRP-
Let us all get together in a way that will get us the change we all seek. There is a lot of trickery and lies around. We have to work against all of that to get to the truth, but we will get there.
Foot notes:
| by cryingvoices | |
WHERE IS THE DOUBLE STOREY HOUSE WORTH RM600,000???? LIM GUAN ENG, RAMASAMY AND RSN RAYER... CHEAP LIARS!!! MACC SHOULD INVESTIGATE ON THEIR KEEN INTEREST IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN KG.BUAH PALA LAND! THIS PHOTO IS THE PROVE OF THEIR LIES~!! SHOW ME WHERE IS YOUR DOUBLE STOREY HOUSE???
Kampung Buah Pala Residents Association chairperson M Sugumaran (left) had told reporters on Sunday that the 10 residents, including himself, had been directed to sign and read out a letter of apology.
Ramasamy (right) also announced the formation of a pro-tem committee for the 15 former villagers who have accepted the offer of houses. The committee is headed by R Karunakaran, a DAP member.
Jeevindra Kumar Krishnan, Sukumaran Apparu
Pro-tem central committee members,
Human Rights Party Malaysia.
Oct 14, 09
4:33pm
Dear Prime Minister,
We are a recently formed political party, the Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP), which is pending registration. We refer to your recent request to the rakyat for proposals to be incorporated in the upcoming Budget for 2010. Our humble proposals, not quantified monetarily due to lack of data and time constraints, are as follows:
1. Minimum Wage
1. We propose that a minimum wage be set at RM1,200 per month, and, RM50 a day (RM6.25 per hour) for piece rate or daily paid wage-earners, for all Malaysian citizens, so as to uplift them from low wages and concomitant poverty. This will, in one sweep move the lowest paid workers' family above the poverty line of RM691 under the 9MP. The average minimum wage of RM325 agreed for oil palm plantation workers from Jan 1, 2001 will give those workers a real wage of only RM258.55 in Jan 1, 2010.
2. Repatriation of illegal foreign workers and cessation of intake of foreign labour
2.1 Simultaneous to the above minimum wage for Malaysians, we propose that it be accompanied with the repatriation of 500,000 foreign workers so as to create and augment employment opportunities for Malaysians.
2.2 The repatriation of foreign workers would largely be confined to the illegal workers who are estimated by sociologists to number 1.5 million in the peninsula alone.
2.3 To ensure that the effect of the minimum wage increase is not diluted but enhanced, the repatriation of foreign workers must be simultaneous to the setting of minimum wages for Malaysians.
2.4 To bring about a restructuring of the Malaysian economy and society, there should be a capping of the intake of unskilled foreign labour so as to force the automation and mechanisation of work.
2.5 Once again this policy would be widespread and could only be a gain to all Malaysians, particularly the marginalised and impoverished bottom strata of Malaysian society.
3. Alienation of one million acres of land for the technologically advanced farming of high- yielding grains, vegetables, fruits, livestock and aqua--culture
3.1 As in previous schemes like Felda, Felcra, Fama, Risda, Kejora, Keda, Kesedar, Ketengah, Agropolitan etc, e propose that one million acres of land be alienated to Malaysians of all races equitably for the technologically advanced farming of high yielding grains, vegetables, fruits, livestock and aqua-culture.
3.2 We rank 8th , 11th and 12th respectively in terms of per capita import of corn, rice and wheat worldwide; this is critical considering that global grain reserves are estimated at 40 days as of 2008. This will also increase the existing agricultural land from 78,700 sq km to 82,746 sq km.
3.3 The purpose of this scheme is to be increasingly self-sufficient in food supply, and if possible for export, as well as to restructure the economy so that no ethnicity is identified with any sector of the economy.
3.4 As previous schemes mostly benefitted the Malay community, further entrenching them in agriculture, we propose this scheme be opened to a larger and more equitable participation by all Malaysians, particularly the working class Indians, without prejudice.
4. Franchise schemes
4.1 We propose that PNB should now extend its mission to provide total franchise solutions to all Malaysians. The time has come for Malaysians, especially working class Indians, to be allowed into all mainstream development programmes that are available.
4.2 We also propose that the licensing requirements under the Franchise Act 1998 be relaxed together with the removal of race-based requirements in submissions of annual Reports for the franchisers or the master franchise.
5. Establishment of an Anti-Race Discrimination Commission and an Equal Opportunities Commission
5.1 We note that in the past, many proposals and schemes did not filter down to the masses as intended, or were not implemented, or were not equitably distributed, or were hijacked by corrupt parties, and this was the bane of the NEP.
As such we propose that an Anti-Race Discrimination Commission and an Equal Opportunities Commission be established for the specific purpose of acting as a watchdog and ensuring that government policy be implemented as intended, and be distributed equitably, specifically not excluding the working class Indians.
This commission should be similar to the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equality and the Human Rights Commission of the United Kingdom.
5.2 This commission would be set-up with powers to enforce what is already budgetary and government policy, including the following:
5.2.1 Enforcement of minimum wage in the private sector
5.2.2 Monitoring of the repatriation of illegal foreign workers
5.2.3 Equitable distribution of land alienated for the purpose of agriculture, livestock and aqua-culture (as in para 3 above).
5.3 To show transparency and sincerity, an official prime minister's circular should not only be issued but made public and specifically also forwarded to us for our follow-up in the implementation thereto. This would prove the government's commitment and sincerity.
After all, Article 8 of the federal constitution provides for equality before the law and equal protection before the law and Article 12 provides for no discrimination on the grounds of race and religion.
5.4 In addition, the Implementation and Coordination Unit of the Prime Minister's Department must be made responsible for the implementation of the prime minister circulars and the budget as a whole, as well as provide monthly updates on their website (that is, when they are up and running again) on the latest status of what has been achieved vis-a-vis the budget.
An example of long overdue implementation will be the yet-to-be-seen allocation of RM100 million for the re-development of Tamil schools as announced in the last budget, of which not a single sen has filtered down.
This when the monies could have been put to use immediately on a lesser number of schools if the initial allocation had been too small, as it has proven to be.
6. All Tamil schools to be made fully aided
6.1 On this budget, an announcement should be made by the prime minister, reiterating an earlier government announcement, that with effect from Budget 2009, all the 523 Tamil schools are to be fully-aided government schools with equal budgets, facilities, resources and teaching staff.
Simultaneously, a policy should be introduced that Tamil and Chinese be taught in all national schools during regular school hours with effect from Jan 1, 2010 onwards.
7. Micro-credit schemes and small business loans extended to non-bumiputeras
7.1 We propose that micro-credit schemes such as the Tabung Ekonomi Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (Tekun) be extended to all Malaysians regardless of race. Right now there is only token assistance to non-bumi small businessmen.
A meaningful extension of the policy to favour all Malaysians would ensure the wide spreading and flourishing of small businesses and a reduction of loan sharks (Ah Longs) and the attendant crimes.
7.2 Licenses must be issued to entrepreneurs in the scrap yard and recycling industries. It is inconceivable that businesses that play such an invaluable role in managing dwindling resources are persecuted because they are unable to obtain the necessary licenses.
8. Amanah Saham Scheme for working class Indians
8.1 The Indians' equity stake in Malaysia has fallen to 1.1%. We propose that the government take concrete steps to rectify this dismal state of affairs by launching a brand new Amanah Saham Scheme in Budget 2010 specifically for the Indian working class.
This scheme is targeted for Indian Malaysians earning less than RM1,200 per month but will be open to all Indian Malaysians earning less than RM3,000 per month.
8.2 The proposed Amanah Saham Scheme must be launched with an initial annual fund size of RM2 billion and be structured with the availability of a government-backed loan scheme at a preferential interest rate of not more than 2.5% per annum (similar to yield of a 3-year Malaysian government security). Current outstanding MGS issues stand at RM229 billion.
8.3 All other terms must be kept similar to that of Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020.
9. Reclassify the plantation sector from the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry to the Rural and Regional Development Ministry
9.1 We propose this transference of the plantation sector from one ministry to another as the plantation population are better served under the rural development ministry which is better able to care of the social needs of the rural population.
Agencies like Felda, Felcra, Risda, etc, come under this ministry and are better able to meet the needs of the rural population particularly when they get displaced when plantations are phased out. This is nothing more than a reclassification of departments from one ministry to another.
10. Resettlement of urban poor into government housing schemes
10.1 Resettlement of all urban poor communities should be carried out on a programmed basis into well-planned government housing schemes rather than in an ad hoc manner, on the occasion of their eviction when private development occurs.
This will avoid all the incumbent conflicts and abuses that are currently associated with private development on land occupied by these urban poor communities.
11. Legal aid for criminal cases
11.1 In order to serve justice to the poor, we propose a fully-funded government legal aid fund for all criminal cases as a fundamental right for all Malaysians earning RM5,000 and below per month. This proposal would be seen as Malaysia taking the steps to ensure justice is served fairly and equitably. This should be modelled along the United Kingdom Legal Services Commission.
12. Conclusion
12.1 We request that working-class Indians be brought into the national mainstream development of Malaysia rather than on ad hoc race-based specific allocations that do not filter down. Kindly therefore provide and announce the necessary allocations for all our aforesaid proposals that benefit all Malaysians and cannot be faulted on any grounds.
The writers are pro-tem central committee members, Human Rights Party Malaysia.
By Wong Mun Chee
Why does the landslide BN win not surprise anyone except those Pakatan Rakyat lobbyist. It is actually a simple conclusion; Pakatan Rakyat just felt that the Indians were not so important anymore as seen in the events that took place in Kg Buah Pala. Even the cow head incident seems to have no effect as that is what is expected from BN but not what is expected with the hoped change in Penang.
We all can condemn as much as we want, but Najib definitely proved to be a better politician than those in the opposition at least in Bagan Pinang as he knew how to embrace and court the Indian society whereas, the opposition became too big headed and discarded the Indian society.
The Pakatan Rakyat thought that through their ineffective Indian mandores, they will be able to harness support. Gosh!!! are they so naïve and blinded. Najib in the other hand inaugurate a runaway organization MMSP and better still, Dr Mahathir endorses it and this has proven that they would rather work with them even it is one of the numerous Indian parties and resolve the issues rather than depending on MIC the so called stalwart Indian representative.
As for Pakatan, it is a simple egoistic run, what can the Indian do. The minute you talk about Kg Buah Pala, it takes a defensive attitude and crucifies those residents rather than working with them for their own deficiency or ulterior motives. For Pakatan, they are after all the minority and those Indian mandores within their sphere will ensure their votes minus the transparency and truth in the people’s mandate for the change. How wrong has this been proven in the Bagan Pinang affair.
Whether Pakatan learns its lesson or not, but definitely BN has learned its lesson after GE2008 and makes concrete efforts to embrace the Indians in whichever manner to ensure that it stays in power even by breaking its own protocols.
Bagan Pinang has been a bellwether for Pakatan when they side track the Indian issues. No doubt the BN government is known for its marginalization and suppression of the Indians, and for that reason, the Indian voted en block under the direction of HINDRAF for the Pakatan coalition in the GE12.
However, if Pakatan thinks that Indian issues can be derailed and put aside similar to that seen in Kg Buah Pala, then they are no different from BN and the Indians rather chose a known devil then an unknown devil.
How Pakatan will move ahead will depend very much on whether they are serious in addressing the Malaysian Indian issues which is far more pressing than the economically sound Chinese and politically assisted Malays at least in their four (4) states.
From what I understand, the Indians still prefer to work with PR but they say, not at any cost. They want to see that there is a real difference between BN and PR. Otherwise, it really does not matter. BN will continue doing the same something crumbs stuff that PR is attempting to do now for the Indians. They do not want crumbs they want to see a crumbling of the old marginalizing order of things.
Let me also explain a thing about myself. Why does a Chinese name talk so much about an Indian issue? Simple, I am a Malaysian, my name does not matter but my intention for what is the truth does for a better Malaysian society.
Date : October 13th 2009
Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak,
Prime Minister of Malaysia,
Block Utama Bangunan Perdana Putra,
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan, 62502 Putrajaya.
E-Mail : najib@pmo.gov.my
Fax : 03-8888 3444
Dated: October 13th 2009
Re: 2010 Budget Proposals By Human Rights Party Malaysia (13/10/2009)
Dear Datuk Seri Najib,
We are a recently formed political party, the Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP), which is pending registration.
We refer to your recent request to the Rakyat for proposals to be incorporated in the upcoming Budget for 2010 (The Sun 2/10/09 at page 12). Our humble proposals, not quantified monetarily due to lack of data and time constraints, are as follows:
1. Minimum Wage [1]
1. We propose that a minimum wage be set at RM 1,200 per month, and, RM 50 a day (RM 6.25 per hour) for piece rate or daily paid wage earners, for all Malaysian citizens, so as to uplift them from low wages and concomitant poverty. This will, in one sweep move the lowest paid workers’ family above the poverty line of RM 691 under the 9MP. The average minimum wage of RM 325 agreed for oil palm plantation workers from Jan 1 2001[2] gives those workers a real wage (in constant 2001 RM) of RM 258.55 in Jan 1 2010[3].
2. Repatriation of Illegal Foreign Workers & Cessation of Intake of Foreign Labour
2.1 Simultaneous to the above minimum wage for Malaysians, we propose that it be accompanied with the repatriation of 500,000 foreign workers[4], so as to create and augment employment opportunities for Malaysians.
2.2 The repatriation of foreign workers would largely be confined to the illegal workers who are estimated by sociologists to number 1.5 million[5] in the peninsula alone.
2.3 To ensure that the effect of the minimum wage increase is not diluted but enhanced, the repatriation of foreign workers must be simultaneous to setting of minimum wages for Malaysians.
2.4 To bring about a restructuring of Malaysian economy and society there should be a capping[6] of the intake of unskilled foreign labour so as to force automation and mechanisation of work to take place.
2.5 Once again this policy would be widespread and could only be a gain to all Malaysians, particularly the marginalised and impoverished bottom strata of Malaysian society.
3 Alienation of one million acres of land for the technologically advanced farming of high yielding grains,vegetables, fruits, livestock and aquaculture
3.1 As in previous schemes like Felda, Felcra, Fama, Risda, KEJORA, KEDA, KESEDAR, KETENGAH, Agropolitan etc., we propose that 1,000,000 acres of land be alienated to Malaysians of all races equitably, for the technologically advanced farming of high yielding grains,vegetables, fruits, livestock and aquaculture.
3.2 We rank 8th, 11th and 12th respectively in terms of per capita import of corn, rice and wheat worldwide[7]; this is critical considering that global grain reserves are estimated at 40 days as of 2008.[8] This will also increase the existing agricultural land from 78,700 sq km to 82,746 sq km.
3.3 The purpose of this scheme is to be increasingly self sufficient in food supply,and if possible for export, as well as to restructure the economy so that no ethnicity is identified with any sector of the economy.
3.4 As previous schemes mostly benefited the Malay community, further entrenching them in agriculture, we propose this scheme be opened to larger and more equitable participation by all Malaysians, particularly the working class Indians, without prejudice.
4. Franchise Schemes
4.1 We propose that PNS should now extend its mission to provide total franchise solutions to all Malaysians. The time has come for Malaysians, especially working class Indians to be allowed in all the mainstream development programmes that are available.
4.2 We also propose that the licensing requirements under the Franchise Act 1998 be relaxed, together with the removal of race based requirements in submissions of Annual Reports for the Franchisors or the Master Franchise.
5. Establishment of an Anti Race Discrimination Commission and an Equal Opportunities Commission
5.1 We note that in the past many proposals and schemes did not filter down to the masses as intended, or were not implemented, or were not equitably distributed, or were hijacked by corrupt parties, and this was the bane of the NEP. As such we propose that an Anti Race Discrimination Commission and an Equal Opportunities Commission be established for the specific purpose of acting as a watchdog and ensuring government policy be implemented as intended, and be distributed equitably, specifically not excluding the working class Indians. This Commission should be similar to the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equality and Human Rights Commission[9] of the United Kingdom.
5.2 This Commissions would be set-up with powers to enforce what is already budgetary and government policy, including the following:
5.2.1 Enforcement of Minimum Wage in the private sector
5.2.2 Monitoring of Repatriation of Illegal Foreign Workers
5.2.3 Equitable distribution of land alienated for the purpose of agriculture, livestock and aquaculture (as in Para 3 above).
5.3 To show transparency and sincerity an official Prime Minister’s Circular should not only be issued but made public and specifically also forwarded to us for our follow up in the implementation thereto. This would prove the governments commitment and sincerity. After all Article 8 of the Federal Constitution provides for Equality before the law and equal protection before the law and Article 12 provides for no discrimination on the grounds of race and religion.
5.4 In addition, the Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU JPM) must be made responsible for the implementation of the Prime Minister’s Circulars and the Budget as a whole, as well as provide monthly updates on their website (when it is up and running again) on the latest status of what has been achieved vis a vis the budget. An example of long overdue implementation will be, the yet to be seen allocation of RM 100 million[10] for the re-development of Tamil Schools announced in the last budget, of which not a single cent has filtered down, when the moneys could have been put to use immediately on a lesser number of schools if the initial allocation had been too small, as it has proven to be.
6. All Tamil Schools to be made fully aided
6.1 On this Budget Speech, an announcement should be made by the Prime Minister, reiterating an earlier government announcement, that with effect from Budget Oct 23 2009 all 523 Tamil Schools are to be fully aided government schools with equal budget, facilities, resources and teaching staff. Simultaneously, a policy should be introduced that Tamil and Chinese be taught in all National schools during regular school hours with effect from 1st January 2010 onwards.
7. Micro-credit schemes and small business loans extended to non-bumiputras
7.1 We propose that micro-credit schemes such as the Tabung Ekonomi Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (TEKUN) be extended to all Malaysians regardless of race. Right now there is only token assistance to non Bumi small businessmen. A meaningful extension of the policy to favour all Malaysians would ensure the wide spreading and flourishing of small businesses and reduction of loan sharks (Ah Longs) and the attendant crimes.
7.2 Licenses must be issued to entrepreneurs in the scrap yard and recycling industries. It is inconceivable that businesses that play such an invaluable role in managing dwindling resources are persecuted because they are unable to obtain the necessary licenses.
8. Amanah Saham Scheme for Working Class Indians
8.1 The Indian Equity Stake in Malaysia has fallen to 1.1%. We propose that the Government take concrete steps to rectify this dismal state of affairs by launching a brand new Amanah Saham Scheme in Budget 2010 specifically for the Indian Working Class. This scheme is targeted for Indian Malaysians earning less than RM 1200 per month, but will be open to all Indian Malaysians earning less than RM 3000 per month.
8.2 The proposed Amanah Saham Scheme must be launched with an initial annual fund size of RM 2 Billion, and be structured with the availability of a Government backed loan scheme at a preferential interest rate of not more than 2.50% per annum (similar to yield of 3 year Malaysian Government Security). Current outstanding MGS issues stands at RM 229 Billion[11].
8.3 All other terms must be kept similar to that of Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020.
9. Reclassify the Plantation Sector from the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities to the Rural and Regional Development Ministry
9.1 We propose this transference of the Plantation Sector from one ministry to another as the plantation population, are better served under the Rural Development Ministry, which are better able to care for the social needs of the rural population. Agencies like Felda, Felcra, Risda, etc., come under this Ministry, and are better able to meet the needs of the rural population, particularly as they get displaced when plantations are phased out. This is nothing more than a reclassification of departments from one Ministry to another.
10. Resettlement of Urban Poor into government Housing Schemes
10.1 Resettlement of all urban poor communities should be carried out on a programmed basis into well planned government housing schemes , rather than in an ad hoc manner, on the occasion of their eviction when private development occurs. This will avoid all the incumbent conflicts and abuses that are currently associated with private development on land occupied by these urban poor communities.
11. Legal aid for Criminal Cases
11.1 In order to serve justice to the poor, we propose a fully funded government legal aid fund for all criminal cases, as a fundamental right for all Malaysians earning RM5,000.00 and below per month. This proposal would be seen, as Malaysia taking the steps to ensure justice is served fairly and equitably. This should be modelled along the United Kingdom Legal Services Commission[12].
12. Conclusion
12.1 We request that working class Indians be brought into the National Mainstream Development of Malaysia, rather than on ad hoc race-based specific allocations that do not filter down. Kindly therefore provide and announce the necessary allocations for all our aforesaid proposals that benefit all Malaysians and cannot be faulted on any grounds.
12.2 We hope these proposals merit you kind consideration. We shall be pleased to provide further clarifications if necessary.
Yours sincerely,
_____________
Jeevindra Kumar Krishnan Sukumaran Apparu
(012- 3151178)
Protem Central Committee Members
[1] http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/bp178/ Minimum Wage Trends : Understanding past and contemporary research
[3] http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/01/……Adjusted for ~ Inflation, Average Consumer Prices Malaysia
[4] http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/malaysia-to-cut-foreign-labour-by-500000-lead_10051611.html
[6] http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1A1-D902OGQ80.html AP Worldstream | April 16, 2008
[8] www.energybulletin.net/node/24336 World grain reserves are at their lowest in 50 years and in the last 18 months…
[9] http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/
[10] http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/30/nation/4806410&sec=nation
[11] http://bondinfo.bnm.gov.my/portal/server.pt……..
UMNO Prime Minister Najib Razak on 10/10/09 announces over 144,000 DBKL flats to be sold to Malay-sians as a gift. UMNO earlier announced a special loan scheme for the poor to be administered by Bank Simpanan Nasional and Bank Islam for those who do not have pay slips, proof of Income Tax payments etc. All these are political gimmicks and a mere show play and wayang kulit. But this poor Indian mother with ten children stays in one bedroom, and was never given the opportunity to buy one of these 144,000 over DBKL flats or any Welfare Department help. As usual it is not the UMNO led government, BSN or the Welfare Department who should be attending to this problem but are not doing so. UMNO assigns an lady Indian Mandore to show that Indian problems are being addressed by Indian “Entrepreneurs”. (Star Metro 9/10/09 at page M13). But this poor family is given peanuts ie the flat deposit of RM1,200.00, monthly rental of RM350.00 for the time being plus RM2,000.00 of sundry goods, furniture, kitchen utensils etc. What happens when this “mandore” stops her monthly RM350.00 rentals per month after her initial media publicity glitz ends?. This family will be back on the streets. This is the tip of the iceberg of the poor and the homeless Indians UMNO must give a permanent and meaningful solution to these critical Indian problem. UMNO must give this family the Felda like land schemes, the latest being the Agropolitan land scheme. This Indian mother with the help of her ten children (and the hundreds of thousands of other poor and deserving Indian families) can do farming, rear high yielding chicken, Jamnapri and Kalahari goats, Dober cows, aquaculture and at the same time take care of the 10 acre palm oil or rubber plantation agricultural land given to them and which she eventually will become the owner of this land in 20 years. This is the help UMNO would give almost all poor Malays but would deny almost all poor Indians these land ownership opportunities. But Prime Minister Najib would insists that he is the “father” of One Malaysia.
17 year old Indian Juvenile bashed up in police lock up for 51 days. Yet again an Indian youth (17) was bashed up in UMNO’s police lock up at Seri Kembangan police station (refer Mingguan Malaysia 11/10/09). His mother Suga Devi had lodged a police report that her son was bashed up in the police station and had suffered a swallen face, bruised and bleeding nose and he had difficulty easing himself. As usual UMNO’s Selangor Chief Police Officer tries to do the usual police cover up by threatening that the police may take action against this mother who had lodged a police report against the police and when Malaysia Nanban daily had embarrassed the police when they had highlighted her story in their front page. Also for making the allegation of police crime in the police lock up against the police when the police station is supposed to be about the safest place in Malaysia. Luckily also for this youth, that the said Tamil daily (Malaysia Nanban 11/10/09 front page and 7/10/09 front page) had highlighted this youth’s plight. Of course no other media, PKR. DAP, PAS, NGO’s or the Malaysian civil society would bother as this youth is “merely” an Indian. No one questioned why this 17 year old Juvenile was detained for 51 days in a row when Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code allows only a maximum of 14 days. A jovinile should not be in the police lock up in the first place but in a home. Thank god this youth did not die in police custody like A. Kugan.
The voters in the 4 estates in Bagan Pinang (Ladang Atherton, Siliau, Ladang Bradwall and Sua Betong) cast their votes overwhelmingly for the UMNO candidate. This was one of the reasons for the increased majority from 2333 to 5435. A swing of 1500 votes to BN of which at least 400 of these came from these 4 estates. Well, today the day after, normalcy will return to these estates and life will go on for all the people there with very little changing after this. The UMNO candidate goes away to continue with his usurpation of the National resources while the poor Indians go away to their miserable lives.
This is exactly how it has been going on for the last 52 years. Election after election empty promises and continuing illusions. Life never has changed for these Indian working people. Till today they live a life of very limited real opportunities. They live a life of indignity. They live on the edge of our society - forgotten till election time like this. They live a life that delivers so little to them and to their children.
The pundits of the country will have us believe it is because of their attitudes, their lack of desire, that they find themselves in this state. This is rubbish. This theory takes the focus away from the real reasons for this state of affairs. The mandores perpetuate this theory further – just listen to them. This is no accident of history either. This is occurring by design. It is a devious design. It is an UMNO charted design. It is a design of systematic neglect. A whole ecosystem has been developed to institutionalize this neglect. This system of neglect can be best understood when seen against a contrasting situation..
THE CONTRASTING SITUATION – THE FELDA SCHEME
This contrasting situation is taken out of today’s(12th Oct 2009) NST supplement on FELDA ‘s NEW GENERATION.
What started as a modest program in 1956 today has become a giant organization. The schemes it manages covers an area of 2 million acres and more than 530,000 people. FELDA's main role is to open up new land areas for agriculture and relocation of low income and landless rural inhabitants. It doesn’t say Malay only but the fact is that the Felda program is almost entirely for the Malay poor and landless. We have no problems with that. What we have a problem with is the systematic and wholesale exclusion of Indians from this program. Nowhere in the Federal Constitution does it say that programs like this must exclude Indians. This is the contrasting situation that I want to portray, to show the systematic neglect of the Indian poor.
This is very clearly basic UMNO policy. It helps it take care of its core constituency, the rural Malays. It becomes a platform for patronage that has been developed and honed and fine tuned over the last 50plus years, and provides the necessary opportunities for accumulation of wealth for the growing appetites of the UMNOputras.. The 2005 results of FELDA show a total turnover of RM 12 Billion. The profits alone are over 700 million. See the scale of things – enormous.
The NST supplement very clearly shows the many and varied human development programs initiated and supported by Felda. Just in the last few years the programs and initiatives launched by Felda - a RM 120 million Maktab Rendah Sains Mara in Trolak, Perak. Just for one school RM120 million. Compare this with the recent promise of an allocation of RM100 million by the PM for 523 Tamil schools in the country, which anyway has not been disbursed yet inspite of it being so many months since the announcement..
Felda supports the education of the youth from Felda with Aircraft Maintenance Engineer training program with MAS, Designer training programs in the Limkokwing University, Nurse training programs in Nilai College, scholarships to overseaes universities in the UK, Australia and the United States in the fields of Biotechnology, Actuarial Sciences, and various Engineering programs.
Felda has launched a new generation skills training program and has put out over 24,000 graduates since 2005.They have a budget of RM50 million annually for this program. Contrast this with all that has not been done for the Indian youth in this category. We can go on and on . the story is long and sad.
Just imagine the scope of opportunities that have been opened up to its beneficiaries. In contrast nothing has been provided for Indians in this program – zero. No opportunities for Indians in the Felda scheme which is materially significant.
If the estate residents like those in the four estates of Bagan Pinang, had been part of such programs, today the situation with the Indian community would be very different. Mind you again, this is only one of the hundreds of such programs that are going on in the country and zero for Indians in all of these programs.
This is really the situation that we must change. The electoral system must be used to bring about changes to the political arrangement in the country so Indians can be systematically brought into the mainstream of national development.. Every program of the government must include Indians fairly and there must be a designed effort to bring Indians into this mainstream of national development.
We have to stop the politicians create illusions and make empty promises and cart all these opportunities away from people who truly need them. Because Indian youth today are blocked from such legitimate opportunities, they tend to choose the path of crime for upward mobility. They are caught sometimes, many times shot dead, often after being caught, beaten to death. Their parents continue to languish in their never changing life , earning measly amounts and hanging on to their meager lives. And the scale of this problem has been growing. Indian lives do not seem to matter in this country.
So, UMNO, the culprit has to go, no doubt at all about that, if this state of affairs is ever to change. They cannot reform themselves to do the things we talk about here. And they will try very hard to hang on, as we can see from all the jostling they have been doing recently. They just have to go.
Even though the Indian votes went to the UMNO candidate in the Bagan Pinang Elections, it doesn’t change anything. This is only a by election. The ADUN who passed away was from BN anyway. Status quo has been maintained.
The point about the vote swing is very clear. If PR does not come out openly and significantly and start to address the Indian issues in areas where they do have authority, they are not going to get the Indian votes as completely as they did in the last GE. I think that much should be clear with the outcome of the Bagan Pinang elections. In fact we warned PR so. PR thought the Indians have no choice – well you saw, they do, but not necessarily because they want it, but because they had to deliver a message.
The same for the next General Elections. As the VP for PAS very succinctly put it and let me quote “In the last (general) election we got strong support from the Indian community... they had no choice, there was no alternative and they had high expectations of Pakatan.” "Now, they are not all for the BN government but I would say that their support is not as solid as it was in the last election (for Pakatan)," he added. Salahuddin said Pakatan need to be more serious in addressing the woes faced by the Indian community. "Pakatan is not doing enough," he added.
This ‘enough’ that he talks about is not anything unreasonable. We just want the Indians to be brought into the mainstream of National Development. As much attention as goes into the development of the Bumiputra programs by the government must go into the development of the Indian programs in the country. And base everything truly on needs. Who needs it most must get it. This is what we seek. Today in the UMNO based system, this is totally absent. And UMNO just cannot do it. They have to go and PR has to show they will make a difference.
Magistrate Ho Kwong Chin made the ruling after hearing submissions by lawyer N Surendran, the counsel for Kugan's mother, N Indra, and deputy public prosecutor Hanim Mohd Rashid, who represented the police.Police officer charged
Kugan, 22, was arrested on Jan 15 on suspicion of being involved in car theft activities but was found dead later.
On Oct 1, a police officer from the USJ police station pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court to two charges of causing grievous hurt to Kugan.
The case made headlines after a video clip revealed severe lacerations on the deceased's body, whom the first post-mortem report declared had died of fluid accumulation in the lungs.
However, a second post-mortem commissioned by the family revealed that Kugan had been beaten and deprived of food prior to his death. - Bernama
