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Nijhar tells why…

June 4th, 2008
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 What made me pause was this:

A large part of the Subang constituency is made up of highly-educated people. So, they would naturally vote for someone who is better educated than them,” said Nijhar, who holds a doctorate in economics from the Australian National University.

Naturally???

Anyways, contrary to earlier report about giving way to others, Nijhar clarifies the reasons for him quitting vice president post:

1. not being informed about him being dropped from 2008 election candidate list

2. sacking of Jumbo Maniam without proper hearing by the CWC due to questions on AIMST accounts.

3. rebranding exercise

Basically he tells that its Samy’s fault.

MIC vice-president Tan Sri K.S. Nijhar’s decision to quit his post last month was a culmination of factors involving party chief Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu.
His first grouse was that he had been dropped from the list of candidates for the 2008 general election. The worst cut, according to Nijhar, was that he had not been informed of the decision.

“A large part of the Subang constituency is made up of highly-educated people. So, they would naturally vote for someone who is better educated than them,” said Nijhar, who holds a doctorate in economics from the Australian National University.

“If I had stayed on as the candidate, I would have won. MIC and the Barisan Nasional would have another parlimentary seat now,” the 72-year-old added.  Nijhar, who had won the seat in 1999 and 2004, said party leaders had a responsibility to inform people in advance if they wanted to drop them. » Read more: Nijhar tells why…

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prayer not allowed on stage due to sensitivities

June 4th, 2008
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Earlier, i wrote about the incident as highlighted by The Star. NST provides more info (below), but the gist of it is the same – the dept says it had already informed the organizers earlier that prayer can be done backstage, while the organizers claim that prayers were not allowed on stage.

However there are some differences – in Star’s report it was claimed that the “smoke and smell” is the reason while below its stated (by the department’s PR officer) that it was not allowed due to sensitivities of the audience (Chinese and Malay). I sincerely believe the Chinese community would have not minded it.

Secondly, Star mentioned that the department head was new, and I think that’s why its a new ruling.

I think the organisers should have cancelled the program and done it elsewhere if they were particular about the prayer issue. Bharatham programmes usually have a prayer to Lord Nadaraja, which shows how much art and spirituality is intertwined in Hinduism. It is only proper to respect other’s religion.

IPOH: At the beginning of every Bharatanatyam performance, artistes of this famous South Indian classical dance pay obeisance on stage to a statue of Lord Nadaraja.
This common practice is also carried out to invoke the deity’s blessings so that the dancers perform well without any obstacle.

However, on Monday night, a group of Bharatanatyam dancers performed before a full gallery at the Taman Budaya public auditorium without the customary on-stage pooja (prayer) to Lord Nadaraja.

This was because the owner of the venue, the state Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Department, permitted the dance on condition they did not install a statue or portrait of the deity and offer their prayers on stage. » Read more: prayer not allowed on stage due to sensitivities

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MIC Saravanan asks for PSD scholarship quota

June 4th, 2008
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Before I go into Saravanan’s proposal, lets look at the statistics – only 34 Indians got the scholarship first, before being increased to 78. There are 180 appeals pending.

Now, why would PSD want to provide quota for the Indian community? Then, others like the Orang Asli, Kadazan, Bajau, Baba Nyonya, etc. will start demanding their part from the “bumiputra” category. This will erode the portion and break up the quota further, and may deprive more Malays of their previously easily obtained scholarships.

Secondly, there should some basis for asking 250 places for the community. Is there any proof that we have 250 top achievers year after year that should be getting scholarship? Is 250 derived from some sort of formula based on Einstenian calculation?

However I agree that interview component of the scholarship award is highly subjective and may be subject to manipulation.

Instead of asking for quota, Saravanan should ask for transparency, a well represented board of interviewers, an increase in scholarship amount or a more stringent criteria.

KUALA LUMPUR: The government must not lump Indians in the non-Bumiputera category, but fix the number of Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships for the community, MIC information chief Datuk M. Saravanan said yesterday.
He said under the present system, of the 2,000 PSD scholarships awarded annually, 55 per cent was allocated for Bumiputeras and the remaining 45 per cent for non-Bumiputeras.”Out of the 900 PSD scholarships for non-Bumiputeras, Indians initially received only 34, which was then increased to 70. We are now awaiting the results of about 180 appeal cases.”The Indians are already backward in terms of education, but yet we have to compete with all the other non-Bumis. The government should allocate, on an annual basis, 250 PSD scholarships for Indians,” Saravanan, who is also Federal Territories Deputy Minister, said.

“The current selection system is also flawed. The exam results constitute 70 per cent of the eligibility marks for the PSD scholarships. The rest is made up of the interview and such, which is very subjective.
“The people want transparency. If a student is the best, then he or she must be eligible for the scholarship. Now, we have students who have scored excellent marks but turned down by the PSD on the pretext that they failed in the interview.

“That half-an-hour interview decides a student’s fate. It might have taken students five years or more to obtain excellent results. Is that fair? It is not a level playing field.” – Bernama

source

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Giat Mara and Insken Indian grads urged to apply TEKUN loan

June 4th, 2008
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Its a bad statistic indeed if only 10 out of 300 students (3.3%) applied for the loan scheme. What could be the reasons?

– not interested?

– don’t know how/where/when/why?

– loan rules too strict/rigid?

MIC can’t be faulted here unless they did not provide awareness or proper information to the students.

RM3 million / 300 students is averaging  RM10000 per graduate, which is quite a substantial amount to start small business like food stall or similar business that require less capital and investment in machineries/tools.

Only 10 of the 300 Indian students who graduated from the Giat Mara centres and National Entrepreneurship Institute (Insken) last year have applied for business loans under the Young Indian Entrepreneurs Loan Scheme run by Tekun Foundation, says MIC President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu.
He urged the remaining 290 students to apply for the loan from Tekun or the National Foundation for Economic Fund Group under the Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Ministry.

“Yayasan Tekun has allocated RM3 million to be disbursed as business loans for graduates of Pusat Giat Mara and Insken,” he said in a statement today.

He said the Tekun Foundation decided to issue business loans to Indian students from Giat Mara centres and Insken following discussions between the foundation and the Social Strategic Foundation (YSS), MICs social arm, last year.

Samy Vellu said although the Tekun Foundation was meant for Bumiputera entrepreneurs, its management decided to open its business loans for Indians through the help of the then Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.
He said qualified Indians engaged in small-and medium-scale businesses can apply for the loan to start or to sustain and expand their businesses, ranging from small cottage to modern technological industries, food, agriculture, manufacturing and handicraft for domestic and foreign markets.

Enterprising young Indian entrepreneurs can contact YSS at Level 5, Menara Manickavasagam, at No 1, Jalan Rahmat, 50350 Kuala Lumpur, telephone (03) 4041-5958 or Fax (03) 4041-5681.

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prayer ceremony not allowed at classical dance program

June 4th, 2008
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Director says Kekkwa never gave approval before this, while the dance group says it has done since in 2000, 2002, and 2006 (wonder why there are gaps in between).

Director cites smoke and smell in the enclosed area as one of the reason for the declination of approval. I guess the reason is a bit negative since sounds kind of intolerant attitude, especially coming from a head of culture and arts department. Plus the program is only about bharata arts so it would not have been offensive (how could it be offensive in the first place?) to others. Most (if not all) of the audience would have been the students, parents, arts enthusiasts only.

I hope this is actually a non-issue, and not something that Sivakumar purposely highlighted to claim some publicity.

IPOH: A row has broken out over the matter of a traditional prayer ceremony conducted before a dance performance.

The directors of an Indian classical dance school here were upset they were not allowed by the new state director of the Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry (Kekkwa) office here to conduct the ceremony before their annual performance this year in Taman Budaya.

State Kekkwa director Ramli Salleh, however, said they had asked the organisers not to conduct the ceremony, as there was concern over the smoke and smell from the prayer items lingering in the enclosed auditorium. “We told them to just do the dance and they even agreed. Moreover, Kekkwa had never allowed them (to conduct the ceremony) in previous years,” he said.

Nritya Kalanjali dance school director P. Sasikumar, who runs the school with his instructor wife T. Sudha, said that it was customary among the community to honour Nataraja, the Lord of Dancers, before every Indian classical dance. “It is a simple ritual where we put a statue of Nataraja and an oil lamp on stage, and offer flowers and prayers before the performance,” he said after the event here on Monday night.

He said he and two other schools – Natya Kalamandir and Ananda Narthana Choodamani – had always offered prayers before a statue of Nataraja when performing at Taman Budaya in 2000, 2002 and 2006.

The three-hour performance, conducted with two other classical dance schools, kicked off at 8pm without the ceremony or any speech from guest-of-honour Perak assembly speaker V. Sivakumar.

Sivakumar later told reporters that the directive suggested a kind of “intolerance” against the practices of other cultures.

source

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