Skills institute remains a dream
No progress has been made more than a year after Works Minister S Samy Vellu dissolved the South Indian Labour Fund to build a skills training institute on the piece of land belonging to the fund, which used to house a home for labourers.
Up till today, the plans for the institute that was to cater to estate workers' children, have remained only on paper despite the takeover of a seven-acre plot in Nibong Tebal, Penang, and RM5 million that was in the fund at the time of its dissolution in July 1999.
This was confirmed by Nibong Tebal member of parliament Goh King Huat of DAP, who said there has been no construction on the land on which the South Indian Labour Fund home once stood.
Samy's press secretary S Ganapathy told malaysiakini today that an allocation of about RM10 million had been made by the cabinet for the institute, which comes under the purview of the Human Resources Ministry.
When contacted today, a ministry official said the maximum amount that was allocated was a mere RM50,000.
The South Indian Labour Fund was the brainchild of the late philanthropist Arumugam Pillai, who donated the land to build a home to help look after aged South Indian labourers and their dependants.
The ground-breaking ceremony for the institute was performed by Samy just before the last general elections.
At the time of the fund's dissolution, the remaining inmates of the home were transferred to various government welfare homes nearby.
There had been criticisms from certain quarters against Samy for eyeing the money in the fund and for having taken RM2 million from the fund for the use of the government, which the minister had then denied, saying: "The government does not need the money."
A group of 41 non-governmental organisations had also opposed the dissolution of the fund then.
The cabinet went ahead to approve the building of the institute more than a year ago but according to the Human Resources Ministry source, "We are still waiting for the Treasury to allot the money to build the institute."
Confusion reigns
There is also much confusion on the part of the ministry, the Labour Department, the office of Samy Vellu and people who have done studies at the home.
Checks with the MIC office produced the answer that "MIC understands there is an 'Institut Arumugam Pillai'", but the Human Resources Ministry official said there is no such institute.
The official said at present, the name of the institute is still being debated upon, let alone the building of an institute.
"Although a few Indian NGOs - in their dreamworld - thought they were losing out a part of their heritage with the loss of the fund, it is for the betterment of the Indian community to have these inmates to be cared for by the government," said Samy's press secretary Ganapathy.
"Furthermore, the land and the fund can be put to better use, such as building an institute for all races."
Dr Collin Abraham, who did a seven-month study on the South Indian Labour Fund, said that what they were against was the initial idea by Samy to dissolve the fund, sell the land and then use the revenue to "help" Indians.
"The fund was one of the first solutions looking into the hardships of estate workers in Malaysia and they wanted to come and take it all away just like that," said Abraham.
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