Kuala Lumpur, May 22 – MIC Deputy President and Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam has welcomed the announcement of a plan to have an integrated approach to uplift the Indian community in the 11th Malaysian Plan and has termed it as appropriate.
In a press statement released yesterday Dr Subra said “towards the later part of 2008, Dato Seri Najib agreed to a suggestion proposed by me to set up a Cabinet Committee to coordinate efforts to uplift the Indian community. At the first meeting of the committee all possible issues pertaining to the Indian community were highlighted. They have since become the core agenda of the committee. The Committee has since then met at least 2 to 3 times a year to review the progress of the decisions made”.
“In order to facilitate the implementation of these decisions many units have been created under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Department. A Special Officer for Indian community reporting to the Prime Minister was the first of such appointment. Later the Strategic Implementation Task Force was formed mainly to look into issues of statelessness, unemployment, educational opportunities, skill training and issues pertaining to Tamil Schools” Subra further said.
PM’s personal initiatives
Dr Subra also outlined initiatives taken personally by the Prime Minister to help the Indian community. “PM also launched Koop Suria as catalysis for Indian economic development particularly through the Atom and Tukar Programmes. Later PM appointed SEED as a special unit to oversee disbursement of RM 150 million loan funds to be disbursed via Banks to Indian SMEs. SEED was also given the task of coordinating the microcredit programme Tekun. Recognising that funds given for Tamil School development was not being implemented quickly and effectively the PM appointed Prof NS Rajendran to head a Special Unit entrusted with Tamil School development. The government had over the last few years given large sums of money to Hindu temples and Indian NGOs. There was no monitoring body to ensure their effective utilisation .Hence a monitoring body to evaluate proposals, make recommendations, and to monitor implementation, SEEDEC was created and headed by Prof NS Rajendran” he pointed out.
These will give a fair idea of the various efforts made by the government to assist the Indian Community, Subra also said.
“Needless to say despite all these efforts certain structural social problems continue to prevail in the community. These have to be addressed” Subra stressed.
“About 3 weeks ago when the Cabinet reviewed the 11th Malaysia Plan I had raised my concerns over the lack of mention of the Indian Community and the need to review the effectiveness of current implementation programmes. Subsequently we had a brainstorming programme with some civil servants and the head of some of the units to identify the gaps in the current programmes” Subra noted.
“I had last week met the Prime Minister and conveyed to him about this and informed him that we will identify the current weakness and make recommendations on potential solutions. To ensure success in the implementation of any such programmes it has to be built upon strong government policies and a facilitative bureaucracy. To date all the above programmes have been propelled by the Prime Minister’s direct enthusiasm and support. Often it has to go against the grains of existing policies and a reluctant bureaucracy. This albeit will be the biggest challenge in the implementation of some of the more difficult recommendations like recruitment into the civil service and opportunities for Indian businesses in government projects and procurement”.
PM’s announcement of a “Blue Print”
Subra also welcomed the PMs announcement on the development of a blue print.
“All the relevant agencies so far appointed should be allowed to give their input and inputs from other social organisations would be fairly considered .The final decision should be done in the Cabinet Committee where the major stumbling blocks have to be effectively addressed. Problems faced by SEED, legal issues clouding citizenship problem, and policy issues pertaining to SPA civil service appointments and existent policies within the Ministry of Finance pertaining to government contracts require strong commitment from the top leadership” Subra said in his statement.
“Needless to say we have made great progress in some of these areas over the last 5years.To name some, the increased funding to Tamil schools, hundreds of million given as Tekun loan and 5000 over who got citizenship are some of progresses” Subra reminisced.
“In moving forward we need not start afresh. What is needed is a sincere reappraisal of all current initiatives and to identify the challenges faced by them. Existent gaps have to be identified and new interventions defined to ensure a more holistic and total solution to the Indian issues. The community has to be continuously educated and motivated to imbibe positive values of industry based on good ethics and values” Subra advised.
“Hand holding interventions to assist dysfunctional groups has to be incorporated to ensure upward social mobility of the socially dysfunctional groups. In short this will be a good opportunity to look back at the last 5years and based on its strengths and weaknesses build a much stronger foundation for the next 5 years” Subra concluded in his statement.
