Referring to the government plan to collect nominal monthly contributions to the Special Unit for Socio-Economic Development of the Indian Community (Sedic), he suggested that the proposed authority be made up of a committee to run the fund and another to audit it.
In the Pakatan Harapan election manifesto, there is a proposal for a social engineering system to eradicate poverty in the Indian community.
Santiago, who was in the team which drafted that part of the manifesto, pointed out to FMT that the system would be funded by Sedic, which would collect contributions from working Indians every month, each person paying anywhere between RM1 and RM5 depending on his wage level.
The amounts collected would be matched by the federal government as well as the state governments, he added.
He was asked to comment on ways to prevent allegations regarding misappropriation of funds as reportedly seen under the Barisan Nasional government.
Santiago said the body he was proposing would ensure that such things would not happen again.
He said the Sedic process he envisioned would be much like the running of the fund overseen by the Singapore Indian Development Association, which was established in 1991 to address the educational and socio-economic problems facing Indians in the republic.
Santiago said Sedic was capable of helping the Indian community for decades if a proper system was put in place.
He gave several examples of ways Sedic could help the community, such as giving low interest loans for members of the community to use as down payments in the purchase of houses, providing bridging funds for higher education and financing the development of Tamil schools.
He spoke of Tamil school pupils who have outperformed their peers in national schools, especially in international competitions in science projects and the invention of gadgets. He noted that such achievements were made after the previous government started pumping money into Tamil schools.
He also said Sedic funds could be used to help pre-schoolers from the hardcore poor, noting research which have shown some to be cognitively underdeveloped due to a lack of exposure to thinking skills.
As for crime involving Indian youths, he said the Sedic fund could help address the problem by making sure students were placed in vocational or technical schools after finishing their secondary education.
The target for the special fund is RM4 billion in 10 years.
Tamil Foundation adviser K Arumugam described the “underlying concept” of the fund as “something like the jurisprudence of distributive justice to correct the historical injustice and suffering due to poverty and social exclusion”.
He noted that according to the Malaysian Indian Blueprint, 272,000 households, accounting for a million individuals, are categorised as poor.
He said the fund should address the poverty issue through “structured policies” and “proper monitoring of its initiatives and management.”