Govt Has Never Taken Lightly The Plight Of Indians, Says Najib

KLANG -- The government has never taken lightly the plight of Indians in the country, said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.He said the government had helped solve many problems faced by the community since several years ago like the problem of personal identity documents."The government has a special committee to look into the problems faced by Indians and as such, I see no reason for the Indian community not to support the government," he said at the national-level Deepavali open house held at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kampung Jawa here last night.

Also present were his wife Rosmah Mansor and Information, Communications and Culture Minister Dr Rais Yatim.Najib said the government might have made some mistakes in the past but had learned from them and now understood very well the Indian community and was doing its best for them."We won't take the Indian community for granted," he said.

He said as the Indian's representative in the Barisan Nasional (BN), MIC president G.Palanivel and other MIC leaders would be given all the assistance they needed to help resolve problems faced by the Indian community.

Najib said national unity was still strong in the country as could be seen by the multi-racial crowds at open houses of the major festivals.He said he was deeply touched that more than 24,000 people attended yesterday's function which had expected a turnout of about 10,000 people.

"Deepavali which is called the festival of lights by Hindus is all the more meaningful as it has brought together people of various races here," he said.He also said Malaysians were blessed to be living in a peaceful and progressive country despite economic woes being faced by many countries.Some countries were facing demonstrations and riots because of austerity measures taken by their governments in addressing their economic problems, he added.

Source : Bernama

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar today raised concern over a massive spike in the number of postal voters in her constituency, as the most recent electoral roll, released on Nov 2, shows.
Speaking at the Parliament lobby today, Nurul Izzah said the number of postal voters spiked by 1,363 percent in two months - from a mere 149 on Sept 26 this year to 2,180 on Nov 2.

Worse still, she said, checks with the Election Commission revealed that 457 of these postal voters are from the Kampung Bohol in Bukit Jalil, which is outside the Lembah Pantai constituency."There are 2,180 police personnel who are postal voters, and this does not include their wives. The winning majority for PKR in Lembah Pantai in the previous general election was 2,895 votes."

Nurul Izzah said that this finding had been confirmed by the EC, and was among thousands of other "doubtful" voters found in the electoral roll for Lembah Pantai.A report has been lodged with the commission, with a copy forwarded to the parliamentary select committee on electoral reform.

Four minors 'arrested and beaten' by cops, says HRP

Four 14-year-old ethnic Indians allegedly assaulted by a group of Malay youths and went to the Setapak police station to lodge police reports were said to have instead been detained and beaten up by the men in blue and forced to confess to criminal offences.A 21-year-old friend of the Indian teenagers who tried to come to their assistance when they were set upon by the youths, was also allegedly attacked by the mob, who were said to have been armed with parang and iron rods.
He consequently had to be warded at the Intensive Care Unit of Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL).

Assisted by the education bureau chief of the Human Rights Party (HRP), G Ganeson, the frustrated parents and guardians of the five alleged victims called a press conference today and demanded that police release their children immediately and take stern action against those who had assaulted the teens.
Ganeson, who is also representing the families as their lawyer, said M Indran, 14, was on his way back to his house in a flat at Kg Baru Air Panas in Setapak late yesterday evening when some 10 Malay youths stopped him and kicked him in the abdomen, after accusing him of throwing an object at them from an upper floor of the flat.

BN has made Indians irrelevant, says Mipas

Indian Malaysians have been "decimated into irrelevancy", says a grassroot non-governmental group in rebuking government leaders for saying that the community has been well cared for under the BN.Under the BN rule, the numbers of Indian gangsters, school dropouts, unskilled workers and the urban poor have increased. BN has diverted problems of the Indian to temples and Tamil schools, the Malaysian Indians Progressive Association (Mipas) said today.

"Today, BN has turned the Indians into a hamper-receiving community (and) Umno thinks that by giving a bag of rice it has done great service. Only Indians without dignity and pride will ever support and vote for BN," Mipas secretary-general S Barathidasan said in a statement.

He said this in response to Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's statement during a Deepavali event on Oct 27 that the "BN government has never disappointed the Indian community since independence 54 years ago".Muhyiddin assertion that the government had succeeded in resolving the various problems faced by the Indian community, Barathidasan said, was not true.

Indians, who were largely from the rubber estates, have been "reduced to slum dwellers on the fringes of major cities, without proper jobs or houses", he added.

"The community has slowly deteriorated into urban poverty, a ghetto community with increased crime. Today Indian youths make the highest numbers in prisons."Barathidasan also said that the numbers of Indian Malaysians in institutions of higher learning and the civil service have been drastically reduced."Indians (who) once dominated sports especially (the) track and field events (are) today almost non-existent," he said.

Participation in the country's economy has incapacitated Indian business people because of "the exclusive affirmative action policy for the bumiputera", he added."The BN government has outsourced all Indian problems to MIC, which is a weak and small partner in the ruling coalition," he said, calling the MIC "goons" for siphoning funds allocated to the community.Muhyiddin's statement, Barathidasan added, was mere "words that add insult to the injured Indian community" he and urged the community to be wise in voting for future leaders.

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/180713 

Peniaga Brickfields gusar projek terbaru DBKL

KUALA LUMPUR: Para peniaga di Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields berasa gusar dan marah terhadap Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) yang merancang untuk membina beberapa perhentian bas di hadapan premis perniagaan mereka.Projek pembinaan empat tempat perhentian bas di sepanjang Jalan Tun Sambanthan bertentangan dengan KL Sentral akan dimulakan pada hari Jumaat minggu hadapan.

Sejumlah 150 premis perniagaan yang menjalankan perniagaan di situ akan menghadapi kesukaran untuk berniaga.Dr R Narkunam dari Klinik Medic City yang mewakili peniaga di situ hari ini memberitahu media bahawa DBKL memekakkan telinga apabila isu ini diketengahkan oleh golongan peniaga pada bulan lepas.

"Jawapan yang mereka kemukakan seperti rakaman suara yang telah ditetapkan. Apa yang berada di dalam premis anda adalah hak anda dan segala yang diluar adalah hak kami," kata Dr R Narkunam dalam satu sidang media yang diadakan di Brickfields pagi tadi.Menurut beliau, DBKL turut merancang menukar arah aliran trafik di kawasan tersebut.Menurut perancangan DBKL bas dan teksi dari kawasan pudu akan melalui Jalan Syed Putra dan menamatkan perjalanan di Jalan Tun Sambanthan.

Interlok: Niat to petition the Agong, rulers

After 10 months and 56 letters or memoranda to the government, a movement seeking to withdraw the novel ‘Interlok’ from school use is heading to the palace.Niat head Thasleem Ibrahim (right) said the group plans to submit a petition to the Agong, as well as the rulers of Selangor and Negri Sembilan, to seek royal intervention to have the SPM Malay literature textbook withdrawn.

Thasleem told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday that copies of the petition will be sent to the premier and his deputy, and that its contents would be made public in due course.Also present was Lim Teck Ghee, who heads the Centre for Policy Issues. He said the issue is a Malaysian one, as the education system is multiracial and multi-cultural in scope.

End of the line for Klang Bus Stand

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Demolition of the Klang Bus Stand will begin by year’s end to make way for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange with the LRT, the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) said today.The demolition is expected to be completed by early next year, after which work on the Pasar Seni MRT station will begin.Buses here servicing Klang and Banting, including Rapid KL U91, will be moved to Pudu Sentral while all other Rapid KL buses will continue to pick up fares from Jalan Sultan Mohamed just outside Klang Bus Stand.Some 5,000 passengers who use the bus stand daily will be affected by the move, effective from midnight tonight.

A commercial development and a new bus stand will be built on the same spot when the MRT is completed in 2016.SPAD chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar said the Klang Bus Stand, built in 1970, needed to be torn down as it no longer met the city’s development needs.But he assured public transport users they would not be unduly burdened by the move, pointing out that Pudu Sentral was a modern facility.
“The 74 buses that make 260 trips from here daily... will be moved to a better, more comfortable place,” he told reporters here after handing out flyers informing the public of the move.