Accusing Prime Minister Najib Razak of offering goodies with one hand, then “grabs manifold” from the people with the other, the Hindraf chairman said the government would only continue to “milk the already poor and underclass community”.
“Hence, Hindraf urges the Indian community to be wary and not be hoodwinked by Najib’s sweet promises of ‘nambikei’ or ‘nandri’ or even to his silly claim of being the ‘father of development for Indians’ coupled with peanuts thrown at them,” Waythamoorthy said in a statement.
Referring to Budget 2017, the Indian rights activist said a total of RM200 million was said to be allocated, but there is no way to see who benefited and how.
“Last year Najib announced RM50 million for programmes to increase capacity and income as well as RM150 million for business financing programmes through Tekun and Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM).
“But it remains a mystery as to how this amount benefitted the community or whether it reached the B40 among the Indian community,” he said referring to the Bottom 40% among Malaysians in terms of income and social status.
Waythamoorthy also acknowledged falling for Najib’s promises, having signed a memorandum of understanding with the Barisan Nasional chairman prior to the last general election, which took place in May 2013.
“Najib who signed the MOU with Hindraf in April 2013, had promised a RM4.5 billion budget to uplift the Malaysian Indian economy but betrayed the Indian electorate after the general election.
“With criticisms mounting against him, the prime minister quickly formed Sedic, an eyewash unit to look into the plight of the Indian community but in reality worked as a distribution centre of government allocations to MIC and their crony NGOs,” Waythamoorthy said of the Socio-Economic Development of Indian Community (Sedic) agency which comes under the Prime Minister’s Department.
He also accused Sedic of being another unit for MIC to exploit the pittance thrown at the community to be shared by their cronies and NGOs.
In conclusion, Waythamoorthy said what the Indians falling under the B40 group needed was financial support that involves less bureaucracy to help them gain a better foothold in society.
“Micro credit financing with no red tapes attached and proper monitoring as well as agriculture and livestock breeding for the targeted B40 group would be the best option to address the core economic issues faced by the lower income group,” he said.