Najib hits the ground as Samy Vellu dithers

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 — Leaving MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu to his intrigues, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak begun reaching out to the Indian community to win their hearts and minds.
Pointing out Najib’s interaction last week with the Malayali community as an example of his direct approach, an Indian NGO leader claimed the prime minister is no longer waiting for the leadership tussle in MIC to play out.“Najib is a man in a hurry,” said the leader.Several months ago, Najib also met Sikh community leaders — including political opponent Karpal Singh — at a “get together; understand each other” function in Ipoh to boost to his image as a prime minister for all Malaysians.

“For the first time Malay leaders are seeing us for what we are... we are Indians but we are also Tamils, Malayali, and Sikh and so on. This is the diversity that was drowned out in the phrase ‘Indian’,” the leader said while declining to be identified.“Samy Vellu took care of himself and his cronies but not the various ethnic groups. We were neglected but now we feel we are getting the direct attention we deserve,” he said.
Although the Sikh, Malayali and other minorities under the Indian rubric were small compared to the Tamils who form about 86 per cent of the community, most of them are comparatively more upwardly mobile and vocal in speaking out for their communities.

“Most of us are professionals and our opinion has an impact on the Indian community,” said a Malayali doctor who also declined to be identified.“Umno has been listening to one man for too long about the needs of the Indian community,” he said.“We are one but at the same time we are also different. We have different needs, different aims and different objectives in our lives.“Politicians should not lump us all together under one ‘Indian’ category,” he added.

Although Najib is reaching out to all and sundry falling under Indian community, he has also made inroads with the Tamil majority by identifying and forming alliances with longstanding and well respected Tamil/Indian NGOs like the Sri Murugan Centre, which has made a name for itself by providing educational assistance.He has called the centre his “ally and partner” in development, and offered scholarships and grants to advance their educational mission.

Several well-known Sri Murugan leaders and other Indian NGO leaders might even end up as Barisan Nasional candidates in the next general election, possibly giving MIC leaders a run for their money.However, the MIC is not being neglected either.Najib is investing in an MIC — minus Samy Vellu and his backers — to help it to better its standing with the Tamil masses, by forming the Special Implementation Task Force to resolve problems faced by the Indian community.The prime minister is chairman of the Task Force but the implementation is headed by MIC vice-president Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, who is currently touring the country and meeting with Indians in places such as Ijok and Sepang in Selangor, Lunas/Kulim in Kedah, Prai in Penang, and other predominately Indian locales.

The first meet-the-people programme in Ijok on August 15 saw nearly 600 people turning up to ask for help for welfare aid, citizenships, and jobs.Officers from various agencies like the National Registration Department, Social Welfare Department, Skills Development Department, Tekun Nasional and the Social Security Organisation, among others, had been present to provide direct assistance.While relief can be slow, but for the first time, it shows the government is more serious now than before 2008 in addressing the community’s issues.

Frustratingly for Barisan Nasional is that despite the progress the coalition, with its proactive measures, has been making with the smaller Indian ethnicities, the bulk of Tamil working class still support Pakatan Rakyat (PR) despite the latter’s failure in fulfilling many of election pledges made in 2008.This has been credited to PR’s greater activity with the Tamils and better understanding of their psychology than the ruling coalition.PR scored points when it conferred Datukships to Mt Everest climbers M. Magendran and N. Mohanadas, whom the Indian community feels had not been appreciated for the feat.

The awards by the Pakatan Rakyat’s Penang government went a long way in boosting the community’s happiness with the opposition pact.In Selangor, PR also made headway by rebuilding the Kampung Jawa temple, in Shah Alam. The temple’s demolition close to Deepavali in 2007 provided the impetus for the Hindraf protest of November 27 of the same year and the ensuing backlash in Election 2008.The contest for the Indian votes — seen as kingmakers in at least 50 constituencies — is an important one for both the BN and PR, but while the latter is winning the perception battle with outward gestures like Datukships and the rebuilding of temples, BN is aiming to win hearts and minds by finally providing the assistance they had long neglected to.


Source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/najib-hits-the-ground-as-samy-vellu-dithers/