The opposition had instigated the people to demonstrate to create the impression that the public is angry with the government, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

"The opposition know that they would not win the coming elections. So they have resorted to create such an atmosphere," said parliamentary secretary to the Foreign Ministry Ahmad Shabery Cheek

He explained that the government had not received protest notes from other countries over the claim that the Indians here have been marginalised.

He was replying a supplementary query from Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor) who asked Ahmad Shabery whether the government had received protests from Indians residing in other countries over the marginalisation of Indians in Malaysia.

Shabery said the living conditions in Malaysia is better than India and quoted a report from the United Nations (UN) in 2006 which stated that one-third of the problems in the world are faced by India.

"With so many immigrants from India flooding our country only goes to show that the situation in Malaysia is far better than India," he added.

MDG goals

Ahmad Shabery also stressed that there should be no room for accusations pertaining to the national level implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) proposed by the UN.

"There shouldn't be claims that the implementation of the proposal is only for one particular race," he said.

Earlier, Ahmad Shabery explained that Malaysia had implemented seven of eight MDG proposals.

Among those are elimination of poverty, free primary education for all, women's rights and global development planning.

He was responding to Nur Jazlan Mohamad (BN-Pulai) who asked the foreign minister to state Malaysia's achievement in fulfilling the MDG proposed by the UN.