BN baiting Indian votes with two ‘carrots’

B Nantha Kumar

To ensure the Indian votes are safely in its bank, the BN is promising the community a new Tamil school and a temple.

MERLIMAU: The Barisan Nasional (BN), which seems to have a head-start in the Merlimau by-election, is baiting Indian voters with a promise of a new Tamil school building to replace an old one and the construction of a “magnificent” temple in the constituency.

And these two promises seem to be working in favour of the ruling coalition, making it difficult for Pakatan Rakyat to break into the Indian vote bank, Alor Gajah PKR division leader G Rajandran claimed today.

Speaking to FMT, Rajandran said since the first day of the campaign, he and other leaders have met more than 500 Indian voters, “most of whom are afraid that if they vote for PAS, they would be missing out on a new school building”.

He also alleged that MIC had threatened Indian voters here that if they opted for PAS, they would not have the new building for the Tamil school.

“The MIC has also promised the Indian community here that BN is planning to build a magnificent temple in Merlimau if its candidate Roslan Ahmad won the election.

“However, todate there have been no details of this plan. As it is, Merlimau has five temples to cater for the Indians,” he added.

However, the opposition is not about to throw in the towel in the race to win the hearts and minds of the Indian community.

“We expected MIC to play up the school and temple issue… we are prepared and have strategies for it,” he said.

He said Indians in Merlimau should send a strong message to MIC and the BN that the community would no no longer be fooled by empty promises.

Small enrolment

Meanwhile,V Loganathan, from Jasin Lalang, said BN should start constructing the Tamil school within a month of the ground-breaking ceremony, which took place on Feb 14, this year.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin performed the ground-breaking ceremony on the five-acre lot.

“As a businessman who frequents Kuala Lumpur, I am sceptical whether the BN is generous enough to allocate five acres to the Tamil school.”

“Honestly, if the Tamil school is built as promised, then it would become one of the largest Tamil schools in the country but the enrolment is small,” he added.

The Merlimau Tamil school has been “squatting” in a secondary school for the last 20 years. The school has also been allocated RM4 million for the construction of the new building.

The by-election, slatted for Sunday, is a straight fight between BN and PAS.