Malaysian PM Najib Keeps Promise To Uplift Indian Community, Says Party Sec-Gen

By Chandravathani Sathasivam KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) has called on the Indian community to place its trust, confidence and hope in Najib Tun Razak, saying the prime minister is an empathic leader who always puts the needs of all Malaysians first. The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) is a Malaysian political party and is one of the founding members of the ruling coalition, National Front (Barisan Nasional), that has been in power since the country achieved independence in 1957. MIC secretary-general S. Murugesan said Najib has never taken lightly the plight of the Indians in the country and has helped solve many longstanding problems faced by the community in such areas as personal identity documents, education, and job opportunities in the government sector. The prime minister has kept his promise to give the Indians a fair deal in uplifting the community by laying the foundation in all aspects of political, economic and administrative transformation, he told Bernama in an interview recently. Since assuming the post of prime minister in 2009, Najib has been introducing various measures and initiatives, such as setting up a special committee to look into problems and ease the burden faced by the Indian community, he said. "The increasing trust of the Indian community towards the National Front (Barisan Nasional - BN) is a direct result of the government's sincere efforts to help them," he added. Murugesan described Najib as a person who is prepared to listen, go to the ground and find out about grouses, and added that the prime minister never lost focus of the ultimate goal of solving the Indian community's problems. He said 5,593 of the 9,529 people, especially Malaysian Indians, had been successful in their application for Malaysian citizenship. He also said that the BN government had fulfilled its pledge to ensure quality education for the Indian community, and cited the government's record spending of about RM440 million since 2009 to upgrade Tamil schools. The government has also offered 1,000 new matriculation places to Indian students who excelled in the 2011 SPM examination, he said. For the 2012 intake for post-graduate courses, the government will give full scholarship to the 100 Indian students who achieved a first-class degree, he added. As for business, Murugesan said, the government has committed RM60 million that will be used to create more successful Indian entrepreneurs. Applauding Najib's hands-on approach, he said there has already been some initial success in increasing the income of Indian sundry store owners, and this would be expanded to more shops as well as more economic sectors. Murugesan also said that the government has started on a new approach where a dedicated unit has been set up under MIC president G. Palanivel to increase Indian participation in the various projects and initiatives under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). According to Dr Sivamurugan Pandian, a political analyst at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Najib is sincere in helping the Indians, and if he gets more support in the next general election, Indians would also benefit more in return for their “nambikai” (trust). "Therefore, the Indian community should move forward by accepting the changes that are sweeping the country and by responding to the recognition and respect given to the community by the present BN government headed by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak," he said. (US$1=RM3.06) -- BERNAMA