The National Indian Rights Action Team (Niat) has listed out its demands for
the next general election today, including calls for a Malaysian Indian deputy
prime minister.
This was among the NGO’s five demands that it wants the
next government to implement within the first 100 days in office.
The
proposal calls a Malaysian Malay prime minister and deputy prime minister, plus
two addition deputy prime minister posts.
The first post would be held a Malaysian Chinese and a
Sabahan, each serving for half a term. A Malaysian Indian or Sarawakian, also
swapping places mid-term, would hold the other office.
“We do not want
other people to sideline us. We must make sure that what comes under the
‘Indian’ category should be brought together.
“Otherwise you do not have
any justification to ask people to do thing that you won’t do yourself,” said
Niat secretary Arun Dorasamy (
left), who was also the project director
to put together the group’s 42-page booklet to explain the demands.
The
booklet also explained that the marginalisation of Malaysian Indians was due to
under-representation in government - a fact also acknowledged by former prime
ministers Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Arun: Indian DPM, why not?
The booklet, titled “Indian Malaysians’ Calls for GE13: Undo the History –
Redo the Plan”, was unveiled in Kuala Lumpur today at a function attended by
some 80 representatives from Indian NGOs and several politicians, including
Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah and Gerakan Wanita chief Jayanthi Devi
Balaguru.
It also calls for three Malaysian Indian cabinet ministers
and four deputy ministers, most of whom would be elected representatives, while
the rest are picked from NGOs and appointed to the cabinet.
There should
be at least one Malaysian Indian Muslim and one Malaysian Punjabi amongst the
deputy ministers, read the booklet.
Pre-empting criticism that the plan
demand is “too idealistic”, Arun said, “I think it’s about to ask what is wrong
with it. I think it is nothing criminal, it is totally legal. I am waiting to
hear the excuses why not.”
In addition, the proposed line-up calls for
Malaysian Indian deputy chief ministers in Selangor, Perak, Penang and Negri
Sembilan, assuming that the states are ruled by the same parties as the federal
government.
Arun explained that this was because the four states
collective houses 73 percent of the nation’s Malaysian Indian population.
Curb alcoholism
Another of Niat’s five
main demands is to form a Minority Affairs and Development Department, which is
to be placed under the Prime Minister’s Department.
“We ought to opt for
a permanent institutionalised solution rather than throwing quick fixes for
issues that need greater understanding and complex manoeuvring pertaining to the
minorities, especially the Indian Malaysian,” the booklet read.
Its other
demands include opening boarding schools to all students and not just those from
National Schools, tackle alcoholism with measures such as rehabilitation centres
and banning the sale of alcoholic drinks in convenience shops and to end to
statelessness by 2013.
Complementing the five main demands are 44 additional ‘supplementary
requests’, which is to be implemented by the next government throughout its
five-year mandate.
These tackle a wide variety of issues, ranging from
economic and education policies, to the placement of police officers in schools
where gangsterism had been rife.
Ambiga: End race politics
Niat chairperson Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim said the booklet has already been
sent to political parties with Indian representation two weeks ago, and a
revised version was sent a week after.
These include the People’s
Progressive Party (PPP), MIC, DAP, and Gerakan.
Commenting on Niat’s proposals, Bersih co-chairperson
Ambiga Sreenevasan said that she agreed with most but not all of the proposals
and praised it for trying to propose solutions rather than being merely a list
of problems.
“It is absolutely proper and timely that we ask the next
government, or whoever seeks office in the next government, that they will give
us (at least) Item #1 in this booklet. Nothing less,” she told the audience,
referring to Niat’s proposal for the Minority Affairs and Development
Department.
She also said that while she believes racial politics should
end and all races should be given assistance equally, it is ‘absolutely
appropriate’ for her to promote the booklet although it specifically deals with
Malaysian Indian issues.
The former Bar Council president explained that
this was because the community had been marginalised for a long time, thus
measures should be taken to rectify it.
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