Malaysian Indian Community needs extra help to regain lost years

However, the impoverished Indian community needs a larger infusion of funds and incentives from the government to regain the "lost years" during which time it has sunk into a morass as can be gauged by the widespread support for Hindraf and the unprecedented dislike for the MIC and other Indian groups.

Socio-economic concerns remain the main priority of Indians. The federal and state governments need to offer a wide range of assistance and affirmative action programmes directly to the Indian community without the need for intermediaries as they have been found wanting in several aspects.

There must be a genuine and sincere effort to help the poor Indians. As an example I wish to refer to the RM1.5 billion shares offered by the government to non-bumiputras over the last three years. These shares provided in three tranches of RM500 million each were snapped up by the rich in record time. What was the purpose for the sale of these shares? They were regarded by many as a chance for the poor to own shares with a higher rate of dividends and which could be used for the future such as for financing children’s education.

If the government really wanted to help the poor, especially Indians, it could have reserved a portion of shares for their subscription and given a grace period of, say, a month. If Indians were allocated about 50 million to 100 million shares of the 1.5 billion, so many of the poor Indians could have benefited and the government could have been looked upon as genuinely and sincerely helping Indians. Despite numerous appeals and urgings by many, the government failed to impose a quota for Indians and other poor groups in need of such incentives. The rich gobbled up the RM1.5 billion shares in record time and became richer.

Indians should also not be grouped generally as non-bumiputras for convenience as they lose out in any share allocation or incentive scheme as mentioned above. Indians should be classified as Indians if the objective of helping the poor community is to be attained whether in share allocations, scholarships, government jobs, assistance schemes for the setting up of industries, SMEs, business or the provision of licences, contracts and other incentives.

None who claim to be representing Indians had the foresight to be aware of the train of events that saw thousands of Indians displaced by development of the estates in the last 30 years ending up in urban slums. It was an escape from one ghetto to another and the resulting despondency has made a definitive mark on the marginalised Indians – poverty, unemployment, dropouts, gangsterism, alcoholism, social ills, single mothers, crime etc.

All are now paying the price for the years of neglect, as there was no one to give the youngsters a helping hand during their formative years. The government needs to draw from past experience and episodes and help the community through whatever means possible to ensure that Indians become a healthy component of a progressive Malaysia.

V. Thomas