The Star covered the talk by Vinod Shekar. I also found a posting in Tulipspeaks’s blog with some pics as well.

Malaysian Indians should stop blaming others for their woes and start taking responsibility, said Petra Group chief executive officer Datuk Vinod Sekhar.

Speaking at a forum on the future of Indian youths here on Saturday, he said the first step was to see themselves as Malaysians and not Tamils, Telugu or Malayalees.

“We are Malaysians and we should not let anybody tell us otherwise,” he added.

The forum was attended by about 600 middle-class youths and professionals including budding business people hungry for financial and other help to expand.

Vinod was speaking as a role model at the forum organised by TheMind (Malaysian Indian Educational Development Association).

Vinod, who is supporting TheMind with RM100,000 a year to network, establish self-help programmes and open up opportunities for Indian youths, urged Indians here to set up groups and seize opportunities as Malaysians and to not rely on Indian-only organisations and political parties for leadership.

“They should develop multiple leadership potential from within the community,” he said, adding that the community should stop blaming and start asking what was holding it back.

“We’ve got to coalesce and look out for each other and build on it,” he said to questions from the floor.

“Our political parties let us down, we let ourselves down.

“We have to help each other and help others, including the poor among Malays and Chinese,” he said, adding that the idea was to start small at local levels and get as many individuals involved.

Not sure if there 600 people though. I think more closer to 400. Hope that those who attended get some benefit one way or another.

As mentioned earlier, I did not attend the talk “Afternoon with Vinod Shekhar” organised by TheMIND Association and IGAUPM, sponsored by Petra Foundation.

Background about Mind and the talk appeared in the Star yesterday:

KUALA LUMPUR: Nothing seems impossible for academic Dr Siva Kumar Balasundram and his colleagues, who between them, have set up TheMind (Malaysian Indian Educational Development) Association, an organisation of high academic achievers who are helping some Malaysian Indians achieve excellence and success through education.

They themselves had struggled to achieve high academic status and believe that with the right help, encouragement and motivation, other Indians too can achieve similar success through education.

“We believe educational attainment is the one sure path for Malaysian Indians to advancement in life and success said Dr Siva, 37, a senior lecturer at UPM and a specialist on precision agriculture.

A core group of about 20 high achievers are running TheMind, and they organise opportunity seminars, motivation forums, courses and seminars for Indians.

They also organise sessions with rural Indian youths to place them in training institutes after they have completed their SPM.

In addition, TheMind has set up an e-mail network of over 50,000 individuals who act as initiators or helpers, offering advice, job vacancies and other pointers to needy individuals, for instance, where to get loans, scholarships and jobs.

“It is like a help-line and it’s growing in size, said association vice-president Dr Ganesan Vadamalai, 36, an agricultural scientist, referring to TheMind Bulletin Board.

In 2005, the group organised the 9th Malaysia Plan Voices of the Grassroots, a joint programme with ERA Consumer that was supported by the Friedrich Nauman Foundation and the European Union.

In 2007, they organised the National Indian Youth Convention, which attracted widespread attention from Indian youths, teachers, professionals and business people hungry to develop themselves, network and succeed in life.

Among the speakers at this convention was Petra Group founder president and CEO Datuk Vinod Sekhar, whose late father Tan Sri B. C. Sekhar was a world-reknown rubber specialist.

A one-day seminar in Kulim in April this year saw TheMind enthusiasts like Dr Ganesan coming face-to-face with the myriad problems Indian youths face -poverty, low skills, low academic achievements, lack of scholarships and being sidelined from mainstream development.

“They were in the low information group, and did not have adequate information on how to seize the opportunities and advance themselves, Dr Ganesan said, adding that 15 youths who had completed their SPM and were about to enter the job market as low-skilled employees were persuaded to study new skills at vocational institutes.

“They can get much higher wages with higher skills, Dr Ganesan said, adding the TheMind intended to conduct more forums to place Indian youths in skills training centres.

“We want to make this a permanent feature of our activities because Indian enrolment in skills institutes is low.

TheMind is a registered organisation and entirely voluntary, said Dr Siva.

“We could use more support and help. We also hope others set up similar voluntary organisations to show the way and motivate our people.

TheMind started with one man, Saravanan Kandasamy, an electronic engineer with Maxis who sent out e-mails in 2004 to Indian professionals whose addresses he had collected after diligent research on the Internet.

“Saravanan argued that Indian professionals needed to get involved to help the community and not just take care of themselves, Dr Siva said.

A meeting was held, attended by about 20 people and from that, a core group of five formed TheMind.

Saravanan runs its bulletin board from Porta City, Portugal, where he is studying for his PhD on a Portuguese government scholarship.

“Although he is far away, we keep in regular touch, Dr Siva said.

TheMind’s latest initiative is “An Afternoon with Datuk Vinod Sekhar “at the UPM campus from 2pm today where the successful businessman appears as a role model for Indian youths.

He will be offering pointers, sharing ideas and taking questions on the subject of the challenges facing Indian youths today.

The event is sponsored by the Sekhar Foundation, which is chaired by Vinod who was impressed enough by TheMind to promise help and funding for the group’s initiatives.

Then attended the talk, but haven’t blogged about it yet. I was there at 5.20pm but did not enter the hall. Saw a glimpse of Kulanthayan in the hall. I could hear bits and pieces of the talk (in English). Also saw the Vizhuthugal hostess (Shusmita I think) in the hall. Anyway, Then was quite unhappy the event started at 3pm instead of 2pm because she was waiting from 1.30pm!!!

I trawled the net, but no other mention of the talk so far. Anyway, Then said he highlighted that we should be helping all Malaysians instead of focusing on Indians only. He also said he will try to help the seminar participants. He also pledged RM100,000 per year to TheMind to setup up office and staff. He also said don’t sacrifice the future of children by blindly sending to Tamil schools, because politician may be using it as the political tool. All this is considered secondary information, so we shall wait for proper reports from those who attended.