Samy Vellu ruined the future of Malaysian Indians!!!

MIC is the second oldest political party in the country, formed three months after UMNO in 1946. Samy Vellu proudly believes that the MIC “is the only party representing the Indians in the country but for the majority of Indians in this country, Samy is an enemy to Indians.

Samy is adamant that the Indian community “has benefited and achieved from the country’s economic progress” Even Samy does not take his claim that the Indian Malaysian has benefited seriously. He contradicts himself ever so often.

What he says has become a joke, a sad joke. Indians should not consider themselves “third-class” citizens. They have benefited much from the country’s progress.

According to Samy, the Indian Malaysian is equal to all other citizens...yet he would when the occasion suits him ramble, rave and roar about the “...uplifting (of) the economic status of Indians”.

50 years of neglect — yet Indians have “benefited”? Is this a joke? So where have the MIC and Samy been all these years? It appears that Samy Vellu and the MIC leaders have no sense of shame.

“The primary responsibility of redressing social imbalances among the communities falls on the Government’s shoulders” — such strong and brave words, especially with the PM who is head of aligned parties, i.e. BN

The evidence is so clear and compelling — whether it be in housing, health, education or economics... the Indian Malaysian, the plantation worker in particular, has been shortchanged.

During his term as MIC president, thousands of Indian plantation workers have been displaced from their homes and from the land which they and their forefathers had cleared, toiled and lived on.

For their daring and dedication in transforming harsh jungles into productive rubber estates, they have been deprived of a home, in many cases, to make way for the development of luxury homes.

For their long-service to their employers and for having contributed to the growth of the national economy, they have been served with eviction orders or paid a pittance as compensation, or dragged into a tedious Court process intended to break their resolve for justice.

Sad to say too, many of the plantation workers are in their twilight years. Some have served as long as 40 to 50 years. They have nowhere to go, they know not another trade, yet discarded.

Estate workers played a vital role in generating the RM15.8 billion or 11 per cent of the country’s revenue. For a people whose contribution to the economy has been so substantial surely they deserve better.

Every year on Deepavali, Samy Vellu very symbolically feeds the PM with a piece of cake. Is this why the economic cake of the Indian Malaysians has been shrinking with each passing year?

What has Samy Vellu and the MIC done to improve the economic well-being of the Indian community in Malaysia? The resolutions of each passing year provide more and more evidence of mismanagement, scandal and frustration.

Even if Indian Malaysians were to ignore the Maika-Telekom shares scandal, they would still be left with the disastrous performance of Maika Holdings Bhd. Set up in 1982, Maika Holdings Bhd was an MIC investment vehicle meant to bring hope to the Indian Malaysians.

But it only brought them misery. Its soaring cumulative losses have only brought nightmares to the poor Indians who had invested whatever they had for a better tomorrow. Its pre-tax losses for 1997 were RM22.63 million, for 1998 RM35.79 million, and for 1999 a staggering RM44.35 million.

The losses, of course, reflected very poorly on Maika’s newly-appointed Chief Executive who happens to be the son of Samy Vellu.

The plantation workers struggling to survive: “What can you expect to do with RM300 and less a month, they cannot support their families as everything is expensive now, but the plantation owners are making millions in profits but they have been neglected all this while”.

Displaced, deprived and disempowered — disillusioned by the empty and broken promises of politicians like Samy Vellu — demoralised by the slow grinding wheels of justice — drowned in a vicious cycle of poverty and violence — the poor Indians, especially their young end up dysfunctional in society.

Indian Malaysians cannot be blamed for feeling third-class or an underclass or outclassed — they have been led and misled by pathetic politicians who seemingly have neither shame nor scruples.

Perhaps the greatest “crime” of the majority of Indian Malaysians, plantation workers in particular, is having entrusted their lives and future into the hands of their leaders, who in return, have handed them only hype and hypocrisy instead of home and hope, more suffering instead of a new hope.

mi1