March 18, 2012
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak attends the 30th anniversary
of the Sri Murugan Centre (SMC) at Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil
(SJKT) Vivekananda, Petaling Jaya. — Picture by Choo Choy May
PETALING
JAYA, March 18 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak asked the Indian community
today to entrust their future to him for another term, citing the
success of government programmes meant to improve their lot over the
past three years.
This included RM440 million allocated to Tamil schools, RM80 million
to houses of worship, more places for high-achieving students in
matriculation courses as well as help given to thousands of “stateless”
Indians to obtain citizenship since 2009.
The prime minister told a crowd of more than 3,000 at SJK(T)
Vivekananda here this afternoon that this proved he had kept his
promises to give Indians in Malaysia a “fair deal”, and pledged to keep
building on this success in coming years.
“If I have delivered, and the government has delivered, just imagine
if we have another five years what we can do for the Indian community
and the nation,” he said on the first stop of his one-day tour of
Selangor.
Najib said his efforts to help the Indians were sincere and had
nothing to do with the coming election as the programmes aimed at
uplifting the community began three years, after he took over from Tun
Abdullah Badawi.
The government will not fool the Indian community with empty promises
meant to gain votes, he added, in an apparent swipe at the Pakatan
Rakyat (PR) pact.
“I am not a politician of that nature. I am committed to the future
of Malaysia. I will not do anything to compromise the future of the
nation,” he said.
Najib stressed, however, that he would only be able to serve the
community and the country if they “walked with him”, as he could not
continue to help Indians or Malaysians on his own.
“I cannot do this alone. I cannot walk this journey alone I must walk
with all of you to achieve what we set out to do...,” he said.
“I can only succeed if you join hands with me. Let us build a better future for the Indian community and for all Malaysians.”
Since taking office, Najib has gone on a charm offensive to win over
the Indian vote after the usually staunch Barisan Nasional (BN)
supporters forsook the ruling coalition in Election 2008.
The community’s swing to the opposition followed a government
crackdown on the November 2007 Hindraf rally, where some 30,000 Indians
marched for better opportunities.
Ethnic Indians constitute around seven per cent of Malaysia’s multi-racial and multicultural 28 million population
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