'Ignore Indian woes and national unity crumbles' .

KUALA LUMPUR: National unity would be at risk if issues within the Indian community continue to be ignored, warned Asli Centre for Public Policy Studies chairman Ramon Navaratnam. Ramon said this in his speech at a recent book launch here.Titled “National Development Plans & Indians in Malaysia”, the book, authored by political analyst Denison Jayasooria was meant to act as a benchmark to assess whether the government had delivered its promises to the Indian community through its eighth, ninth and 10th Malaysia Plan.

While Ramon acknowledged that the book put an end to the long held grouse that MIC had not championed the issues of Indians, he also observed that the output did not match the input.

“Too much talk but too little action is characteristic of our society today,” he stated. “All political parties are too involved in politicking instead of addressing real issues.”

“As such, the Indian community has felt a deep sense of marginalisation, alienation and of not being regarded as equal citizens. We must take heed of this and act upon it fast. Otherwise polarisation will deepen and national unity will be further eroded,” he added.

Ramon added that the challenge of the Indians was “plugging into the system” and pointed out that the community had somehow been unable to grasp the abundant opportunities available to them.

“There are many educational institutions which the underclass sometimes can't get sufficiently involved in. And I think it is the onus of those who are better educated to expose them and encourage them to take advantage of these opportunities,” he said.

The way forward, he said, was encapsulated in Denison's book through the idea of treating all Malaysians equally on the basis of need instead of race or religion. And here Ramon slammed the domination of wealth, race and religion which he condemned as the “anti-thesis of nation building”.

“I daresay that this concept of domination is not in the official policy but in its interpretation and implementation,” he said. “Certain groups are pushing very hard in one direction and unfortunately, the silent majority is taking it lying down.”

NEM, the way forward

He went on to praise former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for his insistence that public issues be discussed and debated more openly in order to accommodate diverse thinking.

Ramon also said that the 1Malaysia concept, coined by current Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, would succeed if all people chose to look at Malaysia's diversity as its asset.

“If we take away the extremist thinking in certain quarters, we will see that we have a wonderful opportunity to learn from each other and provide a model for the world. But some people don't look at it that way and this our big problem. As Gandhi said, God has blessed us enough to meet everyone's needs but not everyone's greed.

“The way forward I believe is the New Economic Model (NEM). To me, it is an improved version of the New Economic Policy (NEP) which I still subscribe to. Who can quarrel with the eradication of poverty regardless of race?” he said.

Ramon cautioned that for proper restructuring to take place, abuses of the past like cronyism, capitalism, closed tenders must be removed. He emphasised that this is what the NEM sought to do.

“But I'm afraid that while the top leadership may agree and push for this, those with vested interest may oppose it. So it's our business as members of the public and the silent majority, that these people don't get away with it,” he said.

Source : http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/news/general/14450-ignore-indian-woes-and-national-unity-crumbles