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This is among the most heartbreaking news I read this year.  I really don’t know what to say!

But I know what to do:

Those who want to contribute can send cheques to the Maragatha Ambiga Fund, c/o Negeri Sembilan MIC, Jalan Tuanku Antah, 70000 Seremban or contact Rajagopalu at 019-6612337 or 06-7622609 or Tampin MIC division chairman R. Rajendran 013-3532526.

Imagine getting up at 3am and until night no rest. How would the poor girl cope with the studies? Lack of sleep, lack of rest, lack of nutrition, lack of money, peer pressure. God, if she gets good results, have to salute her! Also, I respect her for not abandoning her studies or her family. Bravo!

This should serve as a wake up call for parents and adults. Take care of your health. Don’t be a burden to your family and make them suffer.

Why her plight went unnoticed for more than a year? She kept quiet? None of her friends knew? No teachers knew? How about the people in the estate? Or the local politicians in the estate? Since the family received RM200 (not mentioned from who) for schooling assistance, there could have been some way to extend it to welfare and medical assistance as well.

SPM candidate Maragatha Ambiga wakes up at 3am to tap rubber for three hours before rushing to school.

This is what the Fifth Former, 16, has been doing since her parents fell ill in August last year.

She would ride a motorcycle to the 4.6ha rubber estate in Bukit Jalor, about 10km away, and help a neighbour tap rubber for three hours before returning home at 6am.

She would then clean up and head to SM Bukit Jalor which is 3km away.

She gets RM20 a day tapping the rubber. If it rains, she would not get any money.

Student breadwinner: Rajagopalu (left) taking a look at Ambiga’s SPM’s revision books. With them are her father Ramasamy (right), mother Tamil Shelvy and brother Suriya. Looking on is Tampin MIC division chairman R. Rajendran (second from left).

He mother V. Tamil Shelvy, 42, became asthmatic in August last year and was unable to work. Her father P. Ramasamy, 48, was a lorry driver before joining his wife to tap rubber. He also had to stop working because he is a diabetic and has high blood pressure and heart problem.

She has a brother, Suriya, 10, who is studying in a Tamil primary school.

Ambiga’s plight was brought to the attention of Negri Sembilan MIC chairman Datuk T. Rajagopalu who visited the family in Taman Air Kuning Selatan, near Gemen-cheh about 75km from here.

Tamil Shelvy said her daughter’s rubber tapping provides the only source of income for the family in addition to the RM200 welfare assistance for the children’s schooling.

She said that her family members had refused to help her out and instead, had asked her to get her daughter married off.

“I want my daughter to study hard and be somebody in life.

“I have confidence in her,” she said.

Ambiga, who is currently sitting for her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations, said she had to work for the sake of her family.

“I am confident of passing and hope to secure a place to attend teacher training course as I want to become a teacher,” she said.

Rajagopalu said he would assist the children with their education.

He had also made arrangement for Ambiga’s parents to receive treatment at Seremban Hospital and for a contractor to do some repairs to their house.

Those who want to contribute can send cheques to the Maragatha Ambiga Fund, c/o Negeri Sembilan MIC, Jalan Tuanku Antah, 70000 Seremban or contact Rajagopalu at 019-6612337 or 06-7622609 or Tampin MIC division chairman R. Rajendran 013-3532526.

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I was wondering what happened to the cabinet committee on indian community. After the first meeting, it was supposed to have another one in August or September. No one actually talked about the second meeting. And I thought I missed. Now, Samy says only one meeting was held so far.

MIC is asking for another committee - this time to coordinate the RM50 million to help Tamil schools. Good thing - but hopefully it would hold more than one meeting every four months.

As for the proposals, the MIC is asking for speedier processing so that PNB can start selling units to Indians and schools can be renovated/rebuilt. If nothing moves in the next 6 months, then its will be a humiliation to MIC. Already 2 months over and nothing happened. How long should the community wait for “good news”, “agreement in principle”, “decisions”, “allocations”, etc to materialise?

The MIC has urged the Government to set up a committee to co-ordinate the rebuilding and refurbishing of Tamil schools using a RM50mil allocation under the stimulus package.

Its president, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, said the proposal would be tabled by secretary-general Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, who is also the Human Resources Minister, at the next Cabinet meeting.

“We want 60% of the Tamil schools to be rebuilt or refurbished before 2011,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

There are 523 Tamil schools in the country.

Samy Vellu said the party also urged the Government to expedite the implementation of the proposals submitted to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to increase equity participation of Indians.

“The proposals include the setting up of a mechanism within the Perbadanan Nasional Bhd to assist poor Indians to buy shares through a 50% grant and 50% loan from the Government,” he said.

Samy Vellu said they would ask Najib, the chairman of the Cabinet Committee for the development of Indians, to hold a meeting every three months. The last meeting was on July 1.

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Another glimmer of success is in sight after the PM and his deputy agreed “in principle” to MIC’s proposal (actually many other people suggested this idea as well especially via media and forums, but never mind, we give the honor to MIC) to set up a mechanism under Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) to increase the equity ownership among Indians in the country by three per cent in 2020, from the current 1.2 per cent.

According to Samy Vellu:

…the matter was agreed to by both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy, Dauk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also finance minister, when he met the two leaders recently.

“The special mechanism to be set up under PNB will use a similar model as the one used to assist the bumiputera community.

“I have asked the government to set aside an allocation as a form of partial grant and loan to be given to the Indians under the said mechanism,

Another success due to Makkal Sakthi I guess - MIC becoming a bit more relevant and improving a bit on their achievements. Perhaps they will even surpass their past 20 years achievement in the next one year itself.

But I still believe that it should be set at 10%, not 3%. Together with the grants and loans, the recipients should also be provided with some education and awareness on what are they getting into. No point the recipient getting RM1000 worth of units, but selling it off the next day to cover his/her daily expenses.

If can, the units may be linked to some sort of insurance scheme as well.

If done properly, this can be one of the channels to improve the financial status of the poor and underprivileged. However, it must be stressed that providing equity sharing is not enough. It will be falsity to think that the problems faced by the community will go away by giving RM500 million per year (yup, I’m expecting nothing less than that!) in loans and grants. There must be some fail-safe mechanism the amount is not misused by middlemen like MIC, or the recipients themselves. For example, we can put a 3 year “no sell back” clause.

Secondly, how to ensure the correct people get the help? As it is, even the poor and underprivileged are not properly tracked by Welfare Department, so what database are the authorities going to use? How about a list from KWSP? Take the employees of estates, public utilities providers, factories. The government’s employees list can also be obtained. From there, filter those who are earning XXX or less per month. This will be a start, but it would not include self-employed or the unemployed (like housewives).

While waiting the “agreement in principle” to be realised, better some think tanks start their research.

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