Mitra was originally set up to tackle poverty and promote economic growth among the Indian B40 community, but Santiago said it had lost its way and had “effectively become a welfare department” by taking on roles meant for other ministries.
He said Mitra should undergo a complete restructuring, and recommended that community development professionals and experts lead the organisation to ensure transparency and effective management.
“Mitra needs to focus on the development and transformation of the Indian community, not just handouts … and don’t put sitting MPs in decision-making positions,” he told FMT.
Santiago also highlighted the community’s high poverty level and alarming dropout rate, both of which he said required urgent intervention.
He proposed several measures to address these challenges in Budget 2025, including targeted programmes for Indian students.
“Indian youths need more than just education. They need vocational training, counselling, and other social services,” he said.
He hoped the budget would see at least 800 to 1,000 dropouts given opportunities for upskilling, particularly in fields like artificial intelligence and digital technologies.
Noting that there were numerous young Indian women running home-based businesses who lacked financial support, Santiago said targeted assistance would allow them to scale up their operations.
He also recommended that home-based industries be given special focus.
On the education front, Santiago called for computer labs to be established in all Tamil schools nationwide. This would ensure that students have access to digital tools to keep pace with modern developments.
He said that while some schools had such facilities, others remained underserved.
He also called for the establishment of at least 10 community centres in Indian-majority areas, which would serve as vital points of contact between the community and government services and help to streamline access to welfare, education, and employment opportunities.
“With a more efficient and transparent delivery system, we can begin to seriously tackle poverty and uplift the Indian community,” he said.
Santiago also urged the government to conduct a thorough evaluation of Mitra’s funding distribution after claiming that there was a lack of proper checks-and-balances to ensure the funding reached the intended recipients.
In a Bernama report on Oct 5, Batu MP P Prabakaran, who heads Mitra’s special committee, said he was hoping Mitra would be allocated RM300 million in Budget 2025.
He said the organisation had disbursed RM95.5 million of its RM100 million allocation for this year on 11 programmes.