Q&A: If no help at home, I'll seek it outside

MIC president S Samy Vellu is giving the government an ultimatum. If it continues to ignore the Indian community, then he will be forced to seek support from other countries.

In an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini at the MIC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, he also conceded that in Barisan Nasional, Umno does not see the rest as equals.

Why did the Indian community turn its back on MIC?

You see, the Indian community was very unhappy for quite some time. First, they never get jobs in government. Even if they get jobs, maybe three percent, three and a half percent although we are almost eight percent.

The present total employment in government, Indians have (is) not more than four percent and we still have another four percent to fill up. And the (job) promotions are completely very bad. We don't get promotions, however you work, however smart you are, you will never get promotion. If you get a promotion, you won't last long. These are the things that made people get fed up.

On education, a lot of people are sent overseas, we get about 100 seats, 120 seats. By right we should get ... we are poor, we should get more seats than anyone else. We didn't get the seats.

When it comes to housing, they will put up housing in a place where all Indian squatters will be there. They will say, 'You take 10 percent' out of 100 houses. If you build a house in a squatter area, you must give to them first. But they don't do it.

This doesn't happen in Kuala Lumpur, the state government policy is even if so many Indians are there 'give only 10 percent'. But in Kuala Lumpur, it's not that. If they are building houses in an area where there are a lot of Indians, they give preference according to the percentage of people who dwell in the area. In Kuala Lumpur, it is very good, but this is not followed by the state governments.

In the local authorities, you never get jobs, you never get any contracts, nothing. There may be councillors, one or two. These councillors will not be in the important committees. They are just put into a committee where they know nothing, they won't know what is happening. When all decisions come to the general meeting, then only they will know these (developments) have happened.

These are all the things which we should have adjusted and put back properly. But I don't think anybody concentrated on it.

There's a perception that BN component parties are not seen as equal partners, but rather subservient to Umno.

I won't say we are subservient to Umno, but I admit we are not treated equally. We are not subservient to Umno, we fight it out in the cabinet. In the cabinet and Barisan Nasional, I will open my mouth and talk what I feel, I fight it out and the community knows I am fighting this.

So you are saying that although you voice out, your hands are tied because the decision makers do not implement ...

(Shakes his head) They won't. Now I am waiting to see what is the intake for Indians (in government service) this year, I am going to write to the director-general of the PSD (Public Service Department) to find out what is the intake for this year. I am also going to ask him the category, what are the categories of their employment, seniority, what are the positions. In professional positions, what do we get, in normal, technical and other areas, what we got.

What are your hopes for MIC and the Indian community, what kind of changes would you like to see?

You know, whatever the government did not do for us, we ran a parallel government support for the community. I created it. When the government did not give scholarships, I give from the MIC. I created. Today we are sitting in one of the organisations, MIED is an outfit of MIC. We gave RM100 million loans up to now, we have educated 14,500 graduates, out of which 3,500 are medical doctors and we have trained 46,000 para-professionals in our technical college.

Why (did) we build the Tafe college? Because we never get places in any of the government technical college. So I said let's build, let's have our own.

Now we are planning. If the government doesn't do anything, parallel to government, we must do something. We will go outside the country to look for support, to look for help. I will go to many countries, explain the situation and ask them for help for my community. I will do it next, if this government doesn't do anything.

So this is an ultimatum you are giving the government?

Yes!

Tomorrow: On Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim

Part 1

MIC boss: I saw it coming

Q&A: 'Backroom boys' to blame