Zambry: Perak Indians will not be left out

The new Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abd Kadir has assured the Indian community in the state that they will not be left out by the Barisan Nasional state government.

He said that his administration would take care of their interests despite having no BN representatives in the state assembly.

In the last general election, all four MIC candidates failed to retain their seats.

The Pakatan state government, which was replaced by the BN on Friday, had five Indian state assemblypersons, of which one was made the speaker of the assembly while another was made an exco member.

There is a fear among the Indian community in Perak that their interests would be left unattended with no Indian elected representatives in the new government.

This fear was further compounded when the state's deputy BN and Umno chief Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was quoted in RTM's TV1 earlier this week as saying that the Indian situation was caused by the Indians themselves for not voting for BN in the last general election.

Local Indians are left pondering with this remark from the minister in the prime minister's department which deemed as though they were going to be victimised and punished for voting against the BN.

However the new menteri besar has allayed such fears today by stating that his administration will not marginalise the Indian community in Perak.

"Even though there are no Indian representatives, rest assured that everything will be taken care of," he told reporters after attending the Thaipusam festival at Arulmigusubramaniam Temple in Gunung Cheroh this morning.

Zambry's visit to the temple was followed by Pakatan Rakyat menteri besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin and his entourage about two hours later.

MIC wants speaker's post

In his speech, Zambry also stressed the importance of close cooperation among the multiracial society and spelled out the BN government's commitment to safeguard the interests of all.

"Let us be united and move on," he said, as reported by Bernama .

He also announced a RM100,000 allocation for the temple to carry out activities, including to celebrate the Thaipusam.

Meanwhile Perak MIC chief G Rajoo said that the party had submitted three names to be considered for the post of state legislative assembly speaker.

He also said that the state government could also appoint leaders from the community to hold posts similar to the level of executive councillors to represent the interests of the community.

"We hope the government would consider out requests favourably," he said.

Yesterday party chief S Samy Vellu said that he had asked Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to allocate the speaker's post for the Indian community.

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