Saturday, January 5, 2008

PRESS STATEMENT : Urgent Reforms for disadvantaged Indian Malaysians

Spokesperson : Datuk A Vaithilingam as chairman of the organisations listed in the attachment at a Press Conference on Thursday, 3rd January 2008.

I am here today as chairman of a group of more than 120 Indian based non governmental organisations.

All of us acknowledge that there are issues of very grave concern facing the Indian community in Malaysia. Socio-economic woes, the constant attacks on freedom of religion and the unfeeling manner in which Hindu temples have been demolished of late have left the Indian community in Malaysia feeling depressed and fearful. There is, without doubt, a serious problem. It is one that we are committed to overcoming. We hear the pleas of those who were forced by their circumstances to protest recently. We are anxious to work together with all Malaysians to build a better home for all of us.

To that end, I would like to thank our Prime Minister for having shown his caring attitude and acted very quickly on some of the issues raised by Indian NGOs at our meeting with him on 14th December 2007.

In that regard, we take note the release of 5 students unconditionally and of 26 others on bail, and the dropping of the attempted murder charges.

In tandem with the above we hope the 5 persons detained under the Internal Security Act would be immediately released and if at all their actions are criminal in nature, they should be charged in Court and allowed to defend themselves.

We are confident that the Prime Minister will give due consideration to the aspirations and views of NGOs who deal with the grassroots.

We are also pleased to hear that temples to be demolished due to development would be allocated acceptable alternate sites before such action is taken and that the Government has decided to allocate payments for the construction of such temples.

The NGOs who have come together are some of the most influential and hardworking who have deep roots within the community. Some of them have independently submitted numerous Memorandums to the government citing the plight of the Indians and proposed objectives remedies which was not fully acted upon.

The non action of the government has led to one of the major discontentments which is the feeling of alienation. In this respect we request the government to immediately initiate a “Policy of Inclusion” which must ensure the participation of Indians in all levels of decision making process.

Looking forward we have come to a consensus on some specific immediate measures in the short term and some broad policy statements for the long term for implementation by the Prime Minister and Government. This initiative covers a proposal on the setting up of an Independent Non Political Task Force to design and develop specific programmes with respect to the suggested proposals.

These proposals include among others a moratorium on demolition of places of worship, education, economic opportunities and employment. Further It also includes the setting up of a Community Development Fund to be managed by the aforementioned Task Force to provide incentives to independent, non political NGOs to implement community empowerment programmes.

We have submitted this “Preliminary Statement: Urgent reforms for disadvantaged Indian-Malaysians” directly to the Prime Minister’s Office on the 28th December 2007, a copy of the same is attached herewith.

We are confident that these proposals will receive due consideration, and look forward to seeing its immediate implementation. We have no doubt that if all parties work together sincerely, all Malaysians will support these nation building efforts to develop our unity and harmony in our country. [hindusangam]

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