The Pakatan Harapan chairman said he had mistakenly thought that the Indians in Malaysia were well represented by this “big” leader.
“I might be found guilty of not being attentive, but I thought you were being represented by somebody.
“But he was so big I couldn’t see beyond him,” he said.
Though not mentioning any names, he seemed to be alluding to his time as prime minister, between 1981 and 2003, when S Samy Vellu was MIC president and the sole minister from the party under the Mahathir administration.
“I thought he was doing things that he had promised to do as the representative of the Indians, but I discovered now that he did not carry out his duties.
“So, it is only right that his party should be eliminated,” Mahathir said at the launch of PH’s manifesto for Indians for the 14th general election (GE14) here today.
Mahathir, 93, said PH wanted Indians to be given due consideration in Malaysia’s development through the coalition’s 25-point manifesto.
He said PH took into account the high level of poverty among Indians and pledged to allocate RM4 billion over 10 years for the development of the community.
“RM100 million would be made available immediately after PH takes over Putrajaya,” he said.
Mahathir also said PH pledged to solve the problems of stateless Indians in the country and to relax laws on citizenship for deserving cases.
On education, he said PH would for the first time establish Tamil secondary schools.
“We will also convert all partially-aided Tamil schools to become national-type Tamil schools so they can get funding from the government.
“We will make general education available for Indian children and prepare them for employment at various levels,” Mahathir said, adding that this included training them for technical and vocational jobs.
“The aim is to train them so that they will get a wider scope of employment opportunities.”
Dr M blames MIC’s former leader for failing Indian community