Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email Well, never heard of PRIMA before this, but it seems that they represent 115 organisations. They are asking for quota in civil service, reverting to mothe tongue for science and maths, setting up of non-muslim affairs department, and to free Hindraf 5. Note that they also mentioned that “They no longer want political parties to handle the matter and said that it would speed things up if it is handled within departments” regarding to religious matters.
KUALA LUMPUR: The government has been urged to set aside at least 35 per cent of its civil service sector for non-Malays. The call was from the Federation of Malaysian Indian Organisations (Prima), an umbrella body for 115 Indian-based organisations.Its president A. Raja Retnam urged the government to ensure fair distribution of jobs for all ranks in the civil service. “We are not asking for much. If you go to Putrajaya, you can hardly see any Chinese or Indians working in the government departments,” he said yesterday.
Prima also called for Science and Mathematics to be taught in the pupils’ own mother tongue, either Mandarin or Tamil in Chinese and Tamil schools respectively next year. Raja Retnam said the move to teach Mathematics and Science in English was not successful especially for students from rural areas who found it difficult to cope. “Before it was taught in English, the students were doing well but their performance had declined now. “Moreover, early education is better taught in the pupils’ own language,” he said.
The federation also called for the setting up of a Non-Muslim Affairs Department in the Prime Minister’s Department to handle sensitive issues pertaining to religious matters. They no longer want political parties to handle the matter and said that it would speed things up if it is handled within departments.
Raja Retnam also called on the government to free the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders currently held under the Internal Security Act and to charge them in open court.
Now, its interesting to read what Saravanan says after meeting the same group. Here it is reported that the group represents 47 organisations (but the article from NST above says 115). He met with the NGOs for two hours, and summarised that NGOs support BN ( by extension MIC) and still come to MIC to help solve problems – even in opposition held states.
NGO’s are smart too, when they with BN, they’ll support with all kinds of sweet words. When meet opposition, they will do the same. As long as they can get work done, they don’t mind. The NGOs know that areas like public sector employment, tamil school issues are under federal jurisdiction. business licences and housing, the state government can help. In KL, even though the opposition won nearly all seats, the Federal Territory Ministry is still from federal government, thus opposition can’t do much other than pressure Minister and DBKL. I seriously doubt that NGOs in Selangor, Kedah, Perak and Penang are approaching MIC for help.
Saravanan also did not beat around the bush when says that MIC also wants to make use of “their national network”. This is funny when considering MIC is supposed to have a branch in nearly every nook and cranny. Is there any organisation with bigger network than MIC?
Contrary to what its critics claim, Malaysian Indian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are with the MIC and not working against the largest Indian-based political party in the country.
Federal Territories Deputy Minister and MIC Information chief Datuk M. Saravanan said some quarters were saying that Indian-based NGOs were not supportive of the MIC and this wrong notion was “fabricated through the media”.“These people believe that by saying NGOs and the community are not with MIC, they would be able to destroy the party. Let me remind them that they cannot at any time destroy the MIC, they can only destroy unity of the community.” The deputy minister said this after meeting representatives of 47 Indian NGOs, which have formed the Federation of Malaysian Indian Organisations, at the ministry, here, today.
He said while the party’s critics were trying to turn away the community from MIC, they did not realise that their actions were causing disunity among the 1.8 million Malaysian Indians.
On the two-hour meeting, Saravanan said the NGOs wanted to work with the government, especially with the Federal Territories Ministry as many of these NGOs were headquartered in Kuala Lumpur.
“They raised a few issues like employement in the public sector, business opportunites for Indians, housing, licences and land for temples and Tamil schools. The ministry will look into all matters raised.“Primarily, we are happy with the response from the NGOs. Their presence here proves that the people still look to the Barisan Nasional for help despite the opposition making a headway in certain states.
“What we want is to use their national network. Most of their claims are also reasonable and community-based. I promised that the Ministry would work closely with them and fulfil their expectations within the provisions of the law,” he added.
Saravanan said the meeting today was the first of its kind since the March 8 general election, and more such meetings were planned. “We believe this is a good start. We do not want to politicise issues. We rather sit down and work towards getting the problems solved for the good of the people,” he said.
Interesting to read two very different articles on the same organisation. Makes me wonder if such a group really exists!
