MIC will introduce a 15-year action plan aimed at placing the Malaysian Indian community on par with other races when the nation realises its Vision 2020, said party president S Samy Vellu.

"After 10 years of the introduction of Vision 2020, no doubt Malaysian Indians have progressed in certain areas, but we feel that we must have a vision of our own, a vision for the next 15 years.

"This means that by 2020 we will have a thrust to make Indians move forward and they will be at par with other Malaysians, particularly in the field of education, training and employment, with better facilities and salaries and having a new economic status," he told Bernama in a recent interview.

He said the introduction of the plan would be the thrust of the MIC's 59th annual general assembly, slated for May 28 and 29 at the Putra World Trade Centre.

Focusing on education, Samy Vellu, who is also works minister, said MIC and the community as a whole had taken "a very big step forward on the question of education" with more Indians now placing emphasis on educating their children.

He said TAFE College, the MIC-owned technical college, had to date trained some 33,000 youths who are now employed as para-professionals in numerous companies and commanding fairly good salaries.

"Similarly we want to dedicate the university - the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST) in Kedah - to Malaysian youngsters, with special emphasis on Indians who don't have the opportunity to go through such education."

He said the party felt that AIMST would provide a stepping stone to promote new education awareness among the Malaysian Indian community and an avenue for parents to give their children sound professional education.

He said the party had worked very hard for the last 20 years to impress on Malaysian Indians the importance of education and the need for a paradigm shift that could only be brought about through education.

Party leadership

On the issue of party leadership, the veteran politician said only those with credible leadership qualities and a sound track record of serving the people would be given the opportunity to top party posts.

Responding to a question on the intense lobbying and campaigning for posts, he said leaders wanting party positions at the national level must also present themselves as people who have some substance to work towards the betterment of the community.

Samy Vellu, who has been helming MIC since 1980, said party leaders, especially branch and divisional leaders, must change their style of approach in line with the requirements of the party.

"We feel that they have to work much harder because the requirement of the party to serve the community is much higher. So if all of them, at their level, work stronger and harder, I think it will ease our burden. It will make our attempt easier to go into new approaches," he added.

He said there had been positive response from these grassroots leaders with more of them regularly carrying out activities in their respective branches and divisions.

He was happy to note that more than 1,000 out of the 3,800 branches had written to keep him apprised of what they were doing.

"I want this performance exercise to carry on and also at the same time we want to carry out yearly evaluation of their activities," he said.