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Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email Let’s look at the whole article first:
PUTRAJAYA: The special cabinet committee to deal with Indian affairs has successfully addressed scores of problems faced by the community.
Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said by addressing the concerns of the Indian community, it would help Barisan Nasional win over the Indians.“The future augurs well for us as it helps in the process of revitalising the Indian community and in giving it a healthy direction,” he said in his speech at his ministry’s Deepavali celebrations.
The Human Resources Ministry is the secretariat to the cabinet committee chaired by the prime minister.
Dr Subramaniam outlined the successes of the committee in addressing the woes of the Indians.
They included:
– streamlining the procedure for bringing in Hindu, Sikh and other priests from India;
– agreeing to a policy of converting all partially-aided Tamil schools to fully-aided schools;
– increasing the number of Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships for Indians studying in foreign universities to 163 students;
– enabling those who scored 9As and above in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination to be given scholarships to study in local universities;
– recognising the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology University as one of the institutes where scholarship students could enrol. As a result of this more than 150 students had gone to study there under PSD scholarships; and
– agreeing to set up a special task force under the Home Ministry to deal with the 30,000 Indians born in Malaysia who are without documents.
Now, let’s analyse:
“has successfully addressed scores of problems”
– this is a misleading statement because it implies many problems have been “addressed”. Not necessarily solved. And you’ll know why when you see the “successes” listed above. Only 6 items are listed. What are the “scores” of other successes?
“- streamlining the procedure for bringing in Hindu, Sikh and other priests from India;”
– this issue dragged on from November last year. It takes the DPM chaired committee to get things moving. Even earlier announcements were not followed by the relevant departments. Isn’t that a shame? Or is it a “success”?
“- agreeing to a policy of converting all partially-aided Tamil schools to fully-aided schools;”
– this is a good one. “agreeing” means just that. Agree only. When? how? who? Don’t ask many questions? Wait till next election. And again, this is issue has been talked about for a decade at least. Why now only agree? Should we be thankful for this “success” or angry that it took so long? Does it mean that if next election the Indians dump BN, they will get more goodies? Others get goodies before election. We get after election, and also when we protest.
“- increasing the number of Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships for Indians studying in foreign universities to 163 students;”
– out of how many recipients? are the 163 students qualified or are we wasting tax payers money by sending unqualified students? Are the students really poor or come from financially unstable families? And didn’t this happen in June?
“- enabling those who scored 9As and above in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examination to be given scholarships to study in local universities;”
– If I’m not mistaken this covers all students, not only Indians. And it was announced earlier.
“- recognising the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology University as one of the institutes where scholarship students could enrol. As a result of this more than 150 students had gone to study there under PSD scholarships;”
– well, what’s the big deal? If the university is qualfied, then it is appropriate. No point sending students to unqualified universities. The way this “success” is highlighted, its like AIMST does not actually deserve to be in the PSD list, but got it through political intervention.
“- agreeing to set up a special task force under the Home Ministry to deal with the 30,000 Indians born in Malaysia who are without documents.”
– I guess this is the only “success” but I have to qualify it with information that another similar entity is also set up to solve problems in Sabah.
Another thing, two of the successes above happened BEFORE the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee took place in July. Miracle? Or is it because we live in Bolehland where timeline can be altered as they wish. The increase of PSD scholarship recipients were done outside the committee as it involved negotiations between MIC. PSD, and the Ministers involved.
Most importantly, there’s no mention on raising the equity of Indians from 1.1% to 1.5% by 2010 as asked by MIC. Also, what about the permits issues?
