COMMENT There is a Malay proverb that says “siapa makan cili mereka yang merasa pedas” - that those who taste chilli are the ones who will feel the hotness.

New Affirmative Action Movement (Naam) headed by MIC leader and Deputy Youth and Sports Minister M Saravanan, might not be in the business of tasting chilli but he is certainly involved in the chilli planting agricultural scheme.

It is this scheme that is creating all kinds of ‘hotness’.

‘Naam’ in Tamil could be translated as ‘we’, but why call it an affirmative action movement in the first place? Naam is a foundation with a number of affiliates formed to provide employment, training and business skills to Indian Malaysian youths in the country.

But it is certainly not an organisation that wants to correct the injustices inflicted on Indian Malaysians in the country. When you call a movement or organisation ‘affirmative’, it conjures an image of a state-sponsored entity that seeks to correct injustice amongst a certain community or group by providing preferred treatment in employment, business opportunities and in skills.

Under the normal circumstance, affirmative action programmes are temporary and they exist only to correct certain wrongs.

The only link that Naam has with the government is that Saravanan is a prominent member of the MIC and a deputy minister. Other than this, Naam is a private outfit and certainly not part of any effort on the part of the government to rectify to address economic and social grievances.

It is certainly wrong or incorrect to say that Naam is an affirmative action programme for Indian Malaysians. There is no affirmative action component in Naam.

It is just a private venture to address the socio-economic grievances of Indian Malaysians in the country.

Even before Ong Kian Meng and V Sivakumar, the two DAP members of Parliament, raised questions about the funding of Naam and to what extent the activities of Naam benefitted the Indian Malaysians in the country, some of the Tamil dailies have been questioning Naam for the past two years.

The Tamil newspapers have reported that Naam, an MIC-linked company, was started by Saravanan about two years ago to shore up political support for him so that he could eventually ascend to a top leadership position.

It was revealed that Naam received RM19 million from the Prime Minister’s Department and the money was channeled to this outfit through the Youth and Sports Ministry.

Questions of ethics and morality

This by itself raises questions of ethics and morality. How can Naam, a private initiative and MIC-linked outfit, obtain funds from the government and what is more under the direction of the Saravanan. Isn’t there a conflict of interest?

Naam would not have received the spotlight had it not been for the scandal where a few individuals siphoned RM100 million from the Youth and Sport Ministry.

Saravanan might be under the impression that Ong and Sivakumar’s visit and a cursory examination of the documents would have cleared Naam of any wrongdoings.

Ong and Sivakumar might have made a premature visit to Naam’s office, but I am sure they are not fully satisfied with the examination of the documents that were made available.

While Saravanan sought to capitalise on the visit of the two leaders to show that nothing was amiss with Naam, however, there are lots of questions that remain unanswered.

Naam by itself is a foundation and it is a showpiece for the public.

Examination of the documents of Naam per se might not paint a total picture of the movement. One or two hours spent at the office are not sufficient to provide a clean bill to Naam.

What is important is to go beyond Naam and look at its numerous affiliates that are engaged in various projects. These affiliates either wholly or partially owned by Naam provide the core services to the Indian Malaysian public. These affiliates are engaged in social and economic projects and those who are managing these are paid hefty salaries, we are told.

Interestingly, in the visit by two DAP leaders, nothing was mentioned about the affiliates of Naam.

Of course, the most important project to be launched ambitiously by Naam or its affiliate was the chilli agricultural project. Those interested with land or no land were invited to partake in the project. While there was much fanfare about this chilli-growing scheme, things have generally died over the last one year or so.

The Indian Malaysian public would like to know whether the chilli-growing scheme is still on the cards of Naam. Can Naam provide data on those who benefitted from this venture and their background? Were opportunities only provided for MIC members and their relatives or without regard for political affiliation?

Since Naam was funded totally by public funds, the Indian Malaysian community, the supposed beneficiaries, need to know to what extent the funds were put to good use.

Naam might have done some good work; we are not denying this at all. But then, Saravanan, being the leader of this movement, needs to provide regular updates as to the progress of Naam.

The Indian Malaysian community cannot forget how their hard-earned money, from the sales of their land, jewellery and livestock were utilised to provide RM100 million initial capital for the Maika Holdings in the early 1980s. But what happened? Financial mismanagement and cronyism destroyed the company and eventually it was sold off to a private concern.

Surely, Indian Malaysians do not want a repeat of the Maika saga once again. They have had enough of the promises and sugarcoated words of the MIC leaders.

P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the DAP state assemblyperson for Perai.