“It’s the larger Barisan Nasional government that needs to be taken into account,” Santiago told Malaysiakini.

Santiago was responding to comments by veteran MIC leader KP Samy, who contended that the BN coalition risks losing Indian votes in the coming general election unless Samy Vellu steps down as the first of drastic measures to be taken to untangle the political quagmire.

Samy, who heads the Shah Bandaraya MIC branch, is closely associated with the MIC president’s ex-deputy turned political nemesis S Subramaniam.

Santiago also noted that the ‘anybody but Samy Vellu’ line had also been pushed by Tamil media organisations linked to Subramaniam.

“Identifying Samy as the sole cause or reason for the deterioration of the Indian community is very irresponsible. It’s based on the false belief that removing Samy Vellu would solve all the problems of the Indian community,” added Santiago who also entered the political world by joined the DAP today.

Santiago said the BN government in general, and its leading party Umno in particular, should be held to account for the employment, business and educational woes facing the Indian community.

Citing the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) and the lack of progress in the plight of Indians, he said its formulation was under the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) which answers to the office of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

“If the EPU does not provide for the issuance of more business or other licenses and greater Indian share of corporate equity, and does not allocate more for the building of new Tamil schools, whose fault is it?” asked Santiago.

“If the Indian share of corporate equity has been targeted at three percent but demands for specific mechanisms to achieve that are not met, shouldn’t the EPU and the government be questioned?” he added.

“This simply shows that the Indian community is not high in the priority list of the government. The government as a whole is responsible for all people – Indians as well as non-Indians – because every citizen is entitled to an improvement in the standard of living,” said Santiago.

Unfair treatment continues

Santiago also claimed that there was a clear difference between the way the Indian community is treated and the way ‘election goodies’ are dangled in front of the Chinese community to induce them to maintain their support for the BN government.

“Consider the recent election goodies given to the Chinese community: the building of nine new Chinese schools, the transfer of Chinese schools to urban areas, and a RM10 million allocation by the Education Ministry.

“After 30,000 Indians went to the streets to demand equality and protest marginalisation, what concrete steps did the PM do address the issues? He gave them a holiday,” said Santiago.

According to Santiago, there are indications that this unfair treatment was due to the belief held by the BN leadership – especially its leading member Umno – that Chinese support can be maintained while Indian votes have already been ‘lost’ to the opposition.

It seems, therefore, that MIC had been ditched and this explains the lack of accountability on the part of the government as far as the Indian community is concerned.

“By all means give the allocations for Chinese education, but be fair to everybody”, said Santiago.