FIND PERMANENT SOLUTION TO THE PLIGHT OF INDIAN POOR

OPEN LETTER TO PM

YAB Dato' Seri Anwar Bin Ibrahim Perdana Menteri Pejabat Perdana Menteri

Blok Utama, Bangunan Perdana Putra Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan 62502 PUTRAJAYA

27th September 2023

Dear YAB Dato Seri’,

APPEAL TO SERIOUSLY FIND PERMANENT SOLUTION TO THE PLIGHT OF INDIAN POOR. NEW POLICIES NEED TO BE FORMULATED TO ADDRESS THEIR LONG- STANDING ISSUES.

I write to earnestly once again bring to your attention the plight of the hardcore poor Indian community which needs serious and positive intervention by government initiatives to overcome their long-standing socio- economic issues. I also earnestly hope you would succeed in assisting every vulnerable community and thus achieve your vision of a society that looks beyond race and religion. The issues faced by the Indian community are unique and their problems are often misunderstood by those in authority, hence their failure to make/take the necessary changes/actions. Displacements from the plantations from the 1980s caused movement/enforced eviction of estate workers estimated to be 800,000 people to urban and semi- urban areas. However, the schools and temples of the Tamils were not moved/relocated to new areas of settlement thus causing the current situation. Relocations of Tamil schools and places of worship to new areas populated by the Indian community did not take place. Training in new job opportunities for the largely rubber tapper community or provision of land for agricultural cultivation also did not take place. Hence the Indians who were forcefully evicted from the

estates which they toiled for almost 150 years became the largest displaced community caused by state and private sector induced poverty . I am pleased to say post Hindraf rally and the subsequent MOU inked between Hindraf and the then BN leadership paved the ultimate setting up of a special unit for the Indian community and the beginning of the formal allocation of RM100 million per annum for the Indian community. This unit was revamped and renamed MITRA in 2018 when I took over as the Minister responsible and made it a vibrant and transparent unit responsible for the socio-economic upliftment of the Indian community. It has been almost 10 years since the allocation of RM100 were made but the unit MITRA itself is facing various issues currently among which are as follows:

1. a) lack of a responsible Minister to be placed to overlook its role;

2. b) Non- availability of a cabinet minister to raise the plight of the downtrodden Indian community in the cabinet meetings and formulation of any new policies to address their issues;

3. c) Lack of manpower within MITRA with less than 50 staffs to manage the issues faced by 2.3 million Indian community;

4. d) Lack of transparency and the manner of operation of the current committee appointed by yourself which appeared without a direction and concrete plan and seemed to be operation in a secretive manner;

5. e) The role of MITRA to fulfill its obligations to address the socio- economic issues of the Indian community is obscured, paralyzed, and docile – I now wonder if this is deliberate.

I hope YAB Datuk Seri’ would initiate the following on an urgent basis to address the various issues which I have highlighted:

1. 1) reactivate the cabinet committee formed for the Indian community which probably has not functioned in the last 5 years;

2. 2) Appoint a Minister responsible for MITRA;

3. 3) Increase the annual budget allocated for the Indian community to a reasonable sum between RM200 million – RM500 million per annum;

4. 4) Allocate an additional RM200 million for the increase of the Indian equity as per your 2018 Manifesto Pakatan Harapan;

5. 5) Instruct the Home Minister to study the comprehensive cabinet memorandum which I submitted for approval in 2020 to address the stateless issues faced by the Indian community. The adoption of the same cabinet memorandum would also automatically address stateless. Issues

faced by other communities including those from Sabah and Sarawak and the increasing stateless Malay children which are not publicly spoken;

1. 6) Relocate Tamil schools with poor enrollment to areas populated by Indian community rather than closing them;

2. 7) Formulate policies and concrete plans for the Indian community to be part of the mainstream development of the country as there are clear evidences from researches done by academics that the Indian community were sidelined from the various national programs;

3. 8) Address the serious lack of Indians in civil servants and their promotions within the government system.

The Indian community is truly hoping and place their absolute trust in your leadership and that of the MADANI government led by you to implement real changes. I also hope you would be able to increase the allocation for the Indian community in your budget that would be tabled next month. I take cognizance of the fact there is no proper representation of the Indian community to raise the need for an increased budget and formulation of new policies in the government and hope you would seriously consider appointing a responsible individual to your cabinet to lead MITRA or alternatively place MITRA under the purview of an existing cabinet member. Yours faithfully, Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy President