Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today approved millions of ringgit in allocations to assist the country's ethnic Indians.

At the launch of the Malaysian Indian Blueprint held at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Najib, however, denied that this was all an "act", but was a "serious effort".

"It has nothing to do with the upcoming elections because I made the promise to table the Indian blueprint when I tabled the 11th Malaysia Plan in May 2015.

"It has nothing to do with elections, although I won't prevent it if Indians want to support Barisan Nasional," Najib said to laughter from some 2,000 people in the audience at the event today.

The allocations include RM40 million for higher education assistance, RM500 million to set up a revolving fund to provide loans to ethnic Indian entrepreneurs and RM500 million under Permodalan Nasional Bhd targeting the bottom 40 percent income group (B40) of the Indian community.

The prime minister denied that the 10-year blueprint is political rhetoric, neither is it for syok sendiri (self-indulgent) purposes.

"This is not vetti paechi (empty talk), instead it is nijjam, or the reality," said Najib uttering the Tamil words, to the delight of the audience.

Najib, earlier in his speech, explained that the blueprint took almost two years to complete because the government wanted principles, data, figures and recommendations to come from the grassroots level as opposed from government sources only.

"So that the Indian Blueprint belongs to the entire Indian community in Malaysia," he added.

The blueprint, he said, is proof of the government's seriousness in implementing policies to uplift the socioeconomic standards of ethnic Indians.

'25,000 born in Malaysia but without citizenship'

Other measures in the blueprint annouced by Najib, today, include:

  • Increasing Indian student enrollment in public higher learning institutions by at least seven percent;
  • Targeting seven percent Indian participation in the civil service by 2026; and
  • A special clearance system to grant citizenship to Indians who were born in Malaysia before independence.

"There are about 20,000 to 25,000 who were born in this country before independence who have yet to receive their citizenship. We shouldn't deny their rights," Najib said in his speech.

Ethnic Indians make up about seven percent of the Malaysian population and have been singled out by policy-makers as lagging compared to the Malay and Chinese communities.

Only five percent of ethnic Indians born to parents who were not formally educated would obtain tertiary education, Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) found, reducing rates of upward mobility within this community.

KRI said those born to parents with primary education do not far much better with only 13 percent graduating from institutes of higher learning.

This contrasts with 37 percent among the Chinese and 38 percent among the bumiputera whose parents only have primary education.

Bumiputera a catch-all term to include Malays, Sabah and Sarawak natives and the Orang Asli.

Police statistics also show that more than 70 percent of felons are ethnic Indians, Al Jazeera reported in 2014.