GE14 | MIC president Dr S Subramaniam has taken a jab at Dr Mahathir Mohamad, ‘thanking’ him for wanting to resolve the plight of stateless Indians within 100 days if Pakatan Harapan wins the 14th general election.

He said the problems involving the Indians should have been resolved during Mahathir’s 22 years in power, and not now when facing GE14.

“Two days ago, someone who had been a prime minister for 22 years suddenly gained inspiration and awareness to help the Indian community.

“I ‘thank’ him because at the age of 93 he has become aware of this,” he said at the launch of the B40 Indian Community Special Investment Scheme (SPKMI) by BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak at the Kerinchi People's Housing Project, today.

Subramaniam said the Indian community did not receive any assistance as expected, especially regarding the development of Tamil schools, during Dr Mahathir’s time.

This is a far cry from the current administration, Subramaniam said, as Najib was concerned with the plight of the Indian community who were beginning to experience the fruits of the transformation programmes, including in education.

The Harapan manifesto for the Indian community, among others, pledges to ensure that the people get good education opportunities through the full funding of the National Type Tamil Schools (SJKTs) and the upgrading of infrastructure at each SJKTs to be on par with national schools.

Touching on SPKMI B40, Subramaniam said the initiative introduced by the government would encourage and increase savings of Indians in the country.

SPKMI offers each household head an interest free loan of RM5,000 for the purpose of investing in Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS1M), which will be provided to qualified B40 families.

This investment scheme would eventually supplement the savings of 100,000 participants from the B40 Indian households for a period of five years with an allocation of RM500 million.

It is a new scheme dedicated to the Indian community among the B40 after the Amanah Saham 1Malaysia investment scheme was launched in January 2018 for the Indian community.

- Bernama