It is ironical that the MIC president has called for more places to be given to Indians at the newly-established NTS Arumugam Pillay skills training institute in Nibong Tebal area as reported in The Star on Feb 26.

In this connection, I shall be grateful for the opportunity to put this matter in proper perspective because it is, in fact, a microcosm of how a marginalised community can lose out. As will be seen from my explanation below, it is not a question of allocating more places to Indian students but in fact granting them first priority over others.

The centre has been built on a six-hectare piece of land donated by the late philanthropist Arumugam Pillay for the construction of an old folks home for Indian plantation workers who having toiled as rubber tappers for their entire working lives, found themselves decrepit and unable to return to India.

A statuary body, the South Indian Labour Fund, was established to administer this home. Gradually there was a diminishing number of persons requiring such a service and the government was urged to initiate legislation (on the recommendation of a certain political party) to dissolve the fund, sell the property, and to credit the proceeds to government revenue.

At that time there was a tidy sum of RM6 million which the home management had managed to put aside. It was the understanding that this sum would also be credited to government revenue and it was argued by the political party concerned that it could then draw on this money (sale of land plus the RM6 million) for the 'welfare' of Indians.

This property can be considered to be heritage of the Indians because it encapsulates the recognition by a philanthropist for over one hundred years of toil, struggle and sacrifice by the Indian people. Therefore, the establishment of the skills-based training centre must be seen as a continuation of this heritage and accordingly, any Indian who wishes to participate in the training programme should be given the opportunity to do so.

At that time, I happened to be undertaking a research project in this area on behalf of Parti Gerakan on the poor in the estates. I believe the proposal to convert the old folks home to a skills-based training centre originated from my report's recommendation.

There was also unanimous support among youth and women's groups for such a centre. In fact, when we visited a government training centre for Malays in the same vicinity, the Indian youths who were accompanying me stated in no uncertain terms that they could do wonders if they had similar opportunities.

As it happened, just before the decision to sell the property was implemented, I managed to appeal to my friend and colleague Dr Afiffudin Omar - then deputy minister for human resources - to have the property converted to a skills-based training centre mainly for the Indian youth who lived in the surrounding plantations.

Indeed, my main rationale was that there had never been any such facility made available specifically for these youths by the political party concerned or even specific institutions such as the National Union of Plantation Workers, both of whom claim to work for the interest of these people.

I am glad to say that deputy minister promised to make this recommendation to the minister and subsequently confirmed - in a letter to me - that this had been done.

Therefore, on the basis of the above, I would strongly urge the minister of human resources to ensure that priority is given to Indian youths at the NTS Arumugam Pillai skills training institute and for a full-scale publicity campaign to inform all concerned of this facility.

Apparently the political party and other groups claiming to work for the interests of Indians have failed to do even this.