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Tag Archive 'Nadarajah'

Jan 20 2008

Khir Toyo blames community for delay of Indian Culture Centre

Posted by poobalan under Indian | View blog reactions

Hmmm…government giving 20 million, and these guys have not sent a proposal yet? I’m more than willing to step in if these guys have other better things to do. I’m sure the Indian community feels the same as well.

And Nadarajah’s response - “was unwell”.

Perhaps this is a chance for MHS to come back from death?

The so-called proposal was submitted during the meeting between Khir Toyo and Selangor temples representatives held on Jan 4. Extract from the article:

At yesterday’s dialogue, Malay- sian Hindu Council chairman Datuk R. Nadarajah also submitted to Dr Khir a proposal for the setting up of a Malaysian Indian Cultural Centre in Batu Caves. This is following an announcement by Dr Khir that there was a RM20 million state allocation for the purpose of building a cultural centre for the Indian community.

read it here.

to be fair, MHC can claim that it has only been 2 weeks since Toyo announced the allocation and they need more time to come out with comprehensive plan. But if I’m not mistaken, the plan for Hindu Cultural Centre was announced quite sometime back by Selangor govt.

Khir in dark over cultural centre proposal
http://malaysiakini.com/news/77213
Syed Jaymal Zahiid | Jan 19, 08 11:54am

The Selangor state government has blamed the Indian community’s lack of initiative for the delay in implementing the Hindu Cultural Centre project in Batu Caves.

Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo said that his government has allocated RM20 million for the project but has yet to receive any feed back from community leaders or the Batu Caves temple committee, headed by R Nadarajah. “I have given them the freedom to decide on how they wish to conceive the cultural centre, according to their needs and the state government has allocated RM 20 million for the project. “If the state government is to implement the project without consulting the Indian-Malaysian community, they would say the government is unfair,” said Khir when contacted by Malaysiakini.

He was commenting to a recent protest by some 100 Indian-Malaysians from the Batu Caves area over the delay in the project. These protesters claimed that Khir and his government’s three-year-old promise to build the Hindu Cultural Centre (said to be built within the vicinity of the Batu Cave temple on a 20 acre land) has not been fulfilled.

Khir explained that the reason why the project was yet to be implemented was because he has not received any proposals regarding the cultural centre from the Indian-Malaysian community. He denied press reports which quoted Nadarajah as saying that the temple had submitted a blueprint and proposal to Khir on Jan 4.

Khir said he was shocked to discover that the proposal submitted by Nadarajah was actually a proposal of merely landscape alterations for the Batu Caves temple and not the blueprint for the cultural centre. “So why accuse me of lying? You ( Selangor Indian-Malaysian community) give the proposal, we will study it and if approved, it will be implemented immediately,” said Khir.

Nadarajah, when contacted, said that he was unwell and could not comment on the matter.

As for the 100 local residents who protested over the delay in the project, Khir believed the event did not reflect the opinions of majority of the Selangor residents. “Most of the protesters were PKR supporters. They are just desperately trying to manipulate the situation to gain support. I suggest they get their facts right,” he said.

To counter allegations that the delay in the project was racially motivated, Khir argued that his government has implemented the Chinese and Malay cultural centres respectively. Khir said both the Chinese and Malay cultural centres are currently undergoing development though he could not elaborate on the details.

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Jan 13 2008

Krishnasamy cremation

Posted by poobalan under BornInMalaysia | View blog reactions

Even the sky shed tears during cremation

source

TANGKAK: The late Tenggaroh assemblyman Datuk S. Krishnasamy’s remains were cremated at the Kwang Ee Crematorium near here at about 5.40pm yesterday.

MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and other state as well as national MIC leaders attended the cremation. The moment Krishnasamy’s body arrived at the crematorium, it started raining heavily until after the cremation. An MIC member from Segamat said the rain were the “tears of God who cried over the death of a very kind man”.

While temple priests were reciting prayers, Samy Vellu was seen wiping tears from his eyes.

Segamat MIC division chief A. Nadarajah said Krishnasamy was a good leader and had no known enemies, including within the party. He said he had known the assemblyman for many years and knew how caring he was, adding that the Indian community in Labis had lost a very helpful leader. Labis MIC Youth chief A Sivarajah said MIC had lost a considerate leader who always thought about the people, especially the Indians in Johor.

In SEGAMAT, the crowd came with wreaths and penned condolence messages in a book placed outside the late assemblyman’s house. Family members and relatives wept as the cortege left the house at 3.30pm.

Earlier in the morning, Krishnasamy’s second child Rajkumar, 33, thanked everyone for their support and said that his father had worked tirelessly to ensure no community was left out in the government’s development programmes. The family also asked the press not to speculate and allow the police to investigate the killing.

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Jan 10 2008

Samy Vellu blasted by other Malaysian participants

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Samy blasted for 'lies and half-truths'
http://malaysiakini.com/news/76916

K Kabilan | Jan 10, 08 4:49pm

Several Malaysian participants at a just concluded annual meeting of the Indian diaspora in New Delhi have expressed disappointment with the 'lies and half-truths' of MIC president S Samy Vellu on the Indian community’s plight in Malaysia.

They are dismayed with Samy Vellu, who is also the works minister, for portraying a positive picture of the Indian Malaysians’ plight to the other participants of the 'Pravasi Bharatiya Divas'.

The two-day conference, which ended yesterday, attracted thousands of people of Indian origin to the Indian capital.

“He was asked by everyone here as to what is happening to the Indians in Malaysia. On every occasion he told them that everything was fine and that we are doing very well,” said S Nadarajah, a Kuala-Lumpur-based management consultant who attended the meeting in his personal capacity to represent the ‘India Baru‘ (community members with a new awareness).

“He told the participants and the Indian media that there were no cases of the Indian community being marginalised in Malaysia. He kept repeating these lies and half-truths throughout the meeting,” he told Malaysiakini today.

Nadarajah also said that Samy Vellu had played down the impact created by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), stating that the movement was only interested in 'creating trouble'.

“He refused to acknowledge that Hindraf had managed to create some awareness among the Indian community in Malaysia,” added Nadarajah, who is still in New Delhi.

Samy’s angry interview

Samy Vellu, who led a 70-member delegation from Malaysia, which included several MIC leaders and local businessmen, was a guest speaker in one plenary session and had various other speaking engagements and media interviews throughout the conference.

He was also constantly mobbed by the Indian media who were keen to find out about the true situation of the Indian community in this country. In several media interviews, Samy Vellu had said that the Indian community was not being marginalised and that they were 'misled' by Hindraf.

Yesterday, in an interview on TV3, he also lashed out at several Malaysians who were eager to dispute him in New Delhi.

“Here I am telling the Indians that we are all doing well and that the Indian community in Malaysia is well taken care of and yet there are some individuals who rebut me by stating the opposite,” he told TV3.

He even named Nadarajah as one such person, claiming that he (Nadarajah) was a PPP member who had deviated from BN principles by attacking the government in India.

Nadarajah denied today that he was a PPP member. This was confirmed by PPP as well.

“I am here on my own. I am not a PPP member. And there is nothing wrong in telling the world the truth about how the Indian Malaysians are being neglected,” he said.

“If Samy Vellu thinks he can get away with his lies by turning the table against me, he is very wrong. I might even sue him for defaming me,” he added.

MIC’s misleading booklet

Another Malaysian participant said that the MIC was on a campaign in New Delhi to portray a completely wrong picture.

“They have distributed a 20-page colour booklet to all participants here on the wonderful living conditions of the Indians in Malaysia,” he said, adding that the booklet had glaringly left out so many issues involving the community.

“MIC proudly claims to be the sole custodian of the Indian community in Malaysia in the booklet. Who gave them that right? After all, it is the failure of MIC and Samy Vellu which is the root cause of the Indian community’s problems today,” added the KL-based entrepreneur.

Speaking on behalf of several other like-minded individuals, the participant also accused Samy Vellu of misinforming the Indian media.

“When the rest of us are asked about the plight of the community, we tell them the situation as it is. We tell them what Hindraf is and what happened during the Nov 25 rally. We tell them that there are areas which the Indians have been ignored by the government,” added the businessman.

He said that when Samy Vellu spoke to the Indian media, he merely brushed aside these issues and would keep repeating that the Indians in Malaysia are doing well.

“His often repeated mantra is that the government is doing all that it can to help the community, that the MIC is the sole representative of the community and that Hindraf is an irrelevant force,” he said.

Duty bound to defend

Makkal Osai’s assistant news editor SV Muthamilmannan, who is in New Delhi for the conference, said that Malaysian participants were a hot favourite among the Indian media.

“The journalists were not just after Samy Vellu but were also interested in knowing the real situation from non-political Malaysian participants,” he told Malaysiakini.

“Some of these participants were blunt with their assessment while there were others who used the Indian media to send a message that it was time for Samy Vellu to go.

“Generally they told about how economically poor the community was and how it was being pushed further down,” he added.

The Indian newspapers and television stations have given Samy Vellu a good coverage and to balance it up, they have also given his critics some coverage too, added the veteran journalist.

A MIC leader in the Samy Vellu entourage explained that his boss was duty-bound by BN and government principles to defend the government’s records in the international arena.

“Personally, he might feel otherwise but he can never say it out in the open as he is part of the government and he has to stand by the government,” said the leader who requested anonymity.

“He is doing his duty in explaining to the Indian government and others here that the MIC is taking good care of the community. At the same time, what many don’t realise is that on the ground, the party is working very hard to address all the community’s issues,” he said.

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