Stop the lies, Nalla warns opposition

A pro-BN Indian community politician today condemned the opposition party leaders for continuing to propagate that Indians in this country were being sidelined.

Malaysian Indian United Party (MIUP) president KS Nallakaruppan said that the opposition leaders, especially from the Indian community, were still cheating and telling lies to the Indian community.

"We agree that there were some problems of Indians being neglected previously but the Barisan Nasional government has acknowledged this and is in the midst of changing the situation," he told Malaysiakini today.

"And after the last general election, many of the main grouses of the Indian community are being addressed by the BN government," he added.

He said that the BN government had allocated a large tract of money for the Indian community, including for the betterment of Tamil schools and training skills for the youths, so that positive developments could be achieved.

He added that since positive changes were being made, it was irresponsible for the opposition to continue harping on the issue on BN government inaction.

"They also have five states. What have they done for the Indians in these states? As it is, most of the social and economic uplifting projects in these states are being undertaken by the federal BN government," he said.

"But they continue to harp on the issue of Indian marginalisation... this is being done only for political purposes. They are interested in only making noise to gain support," he added.

Nallakaruppan's Indian-based party has thrown its full support behind BN since its formation in November 2007. The party was formed by a breakaway group from PKR.

A pact with PPP

The former businessman said that his party was also involved in the BN's various schemes to uplift the Indian community.

"We have done our grassroots work in Johor and Perak especially and through our programmes we have seen some of the problems faced by the community being removed.

"We don't go and publicise our work so that the whole world will know. We just want to do it quietly," he added.

He said that the Indian community was also starting to realise that the BN was trying its best to help lift them up economically.

Nallakaruppan said that it was with the aim of doing more for the Indian community that his party had joined forces with People's Progressive Party (PPP).

A pact between PPP and MIUP was inked yesterday where both the parties vowed to work together for the welfare of the Indian community. Another Indian-based party Indian Progressive Front is expected to join in soon.

"We want Indian parties to support a stable government led by the BN. We will also welcome other Indian-based parties to speak as one voice for the coalition," PPP president M Kayveas told reporters after announcing the partnership yesterday.

Commenting on this, Nallakaruppan said that they would work with anyone "as long as they will work with BN for the Indian community".

"Even MIC can join in if they are interested," he said.

Former leaders warned

In a related development, Johor MIUP leader P Karunagaran lashed out at former party leaders for badmouthing the party now.

He said that a handful of MIUP's founding leaders who had since gone back to PKR were involved in a campaign to tarnish the reputation of the party.

"We know who these people are and what they are up to. One or two of them have been playing dirty by making bad comments about us.

"One particular person who was given a very high ranking party position when MIUP was formed is now making phone calls to all our state leaders to ask them to ditch this party and join PKR.

"We know his game and it won't be long before we too will have to spill his dirt to the public," he warned.

He refused to name the particular party leader but said that this person played a very important role in getting Nallakaruppan out of PKR.

"He pressured our president to leave PKR and now since he has gone back to PKR, he has been pretending to be a party loyalist by condemning us. He should stop this.

"I urge PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim to be careful of these particular person," he added.