Samy’s MIC resorts to Full Page Ads for the Power of Truths After ALL Attempts failed to reach Indian Community; Heckled at Perai & Bagan Dalam Visit

ABOVE: The Heading of the Full Page Ads as seen in the STAR, Feb 27 2008; BELOW: Some of the simple Truths, that the community refused to accept

These ads would cost the MIC thousands of Ringgit in the major MSM and possible in the vernacular Indian papers but they have no choice after all attempts in reaching back to the community failed to convince them the simple truths. The used of Government skewed figures has further confronted the truths and the community do not viewed them as credible and look upon them as “pulling wool over their eyes”. Majority of the community refused to listen to his "sweet talk" anymore and the use of ads seem to be a last resort. Poor old Samy is putting up a very brave face as now everywhere he goes; there are crowds to heckle him.

With the rejection of the Court in freeing the Hindrf 5 and the continuation of their the detention, the final seal has been affixed for the defeat of the MIC candidates in the coming general election as the Hindraf members have avowed to teach him and the Badawi government a lesson

WHO SAYS MIC HAS NOT DONE ENOUGH?

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MIC HAS NEVER SAID NO!

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MIC HAS ALWAYS SAID YES!

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Now here is the REAL TRUTH which M.I.C did not tell (compiled by Norman Fernandez); go H E R E
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Samy: Indians can count on MIC
By A. LETCHUMANAN; STAR

The 12th general election is the toughest ever for the MIC. Its president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu discusses the issues facing the party in an exclusive interview just after nomination day.

Q: There is talk that Indian voters are unhappy with you and the MIC, not the Government. Indians have also staged demonstrations to voice their resentment. What's your view on this?
A: Certain sections of the Indian community are angry, not because we didn't raise or ask for solutions to their plight. Their anger is due to inadequacy: when 50 people apply for a (government) job, and if only one gets the job, it is not only they that get angry. Even I get disappointed. I have fought for this many times in the Cabinet and we have achieved some degree of success. I'm not the kind of person who represents the people (in name) but ignores their problems.

Q: You have been jeered at during some gatherings. How have you handled this?
A: I cannot be afraid of these actions. We must face them and be able to counter their allegations. Although only a certain section of people who claim to represent the Indian voice are involved in such actions, we represent all Indian Malaysians. We hear them. We act on their grievances. But they must use the right channels. We are and have been open to their views. I am sad that certain elements have made use of innocent and poor Indians for their own political game. In the end, it is the community that will suffer. Those behind their downfall will blame us (the MIC) for the Indians’ failures. But at the end of the day, the Indians can always count on the MIC.

Q: Are you worried that some MIC candidates will lose in this general election?
A: The Indians know very well that they need a strong and cohesive representation in the Government. The MIC has provided just that. They also know very well that if they don’t vote for an Indian candidate from the MIC, their voice will not or never be heard. But, the people must understand that we cannot have all our problems resolved in a matter of days or weeks or even months. The Government must be seen as being fair and equitable to all races.

Q: Some are saying that the MIC leadership should be blamed for this situation. Would you agree?
A: It is easy to point fingers. We have raised many issues pertaining to the plight of the Indians through the various platforms. Some we get and some we don’t. I can say that the MIC and I have done our best, but I feel and believe that more can and should be done. Come what may, I will fight on and nobody can stop me.

Q: Tell us the actions you raised as MIC president. Have all the matters taken up been resolved?
A: As I have said, we can ask for 10 things, but we end up getting five things. I have records on what we have got. Two years ago, I brought to the attention of the Cabinet that Indians need assistance in business and the Government then gave out RM40mil loans through BSN’s micro credit scheme to 4,000 people.
At the moment, in order to assist 2,500 people to get loans, we have been conducting seminars in all the state capitals. We are geared to create 5,000 new businessmen by the end of the 9MP. When I became the president, I realised that only by transforming the community into an educated society, would we be able to compete and be on par with the other races. I set out to make Vanto Academy the educational vehicle to uplift the socio-economic position of the Indians.

The MIC has helped create 44,000 Indian para-professionals through the later established TAFE College and now, AIMST University - which cost RM490mil - has produced 18 full-fledged medical students. In my 29 years of service as a Minister, I think there was never a day I have not fought for the community.

Q: The Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) states that Indian equity will increase from 1.2% to 3%. However, we have not seen any specific mechanism for this to be achieved.
A: When the 9MP was being drawn up, the Prime Minister gave us a copy of the draft plan . We appointed about 85 experts to scrutinise the plan. We then submitted a report to the Prime Minister detailing how to achieve it in the report. We proposed a mechanism similar to the practice of giving shares to bumiputras through government-initiated bodies like the PNB.

Q: What are the realities of the Indian community and what are the MIC's goals for them?
A: The average Indian family earns RM3,456 as indicated by EPU (Economic Planning Unit) figures. In addition, the Indian community has lower income disparity figures within the community compared to other races. The MIC also recognises that there are sizeable pockets of disadvantaged and low-income Indian families who are part of the urban poor and bottom 30% of the socio-economic ladder in Malaysia. The pressing socio-economic issues relate to lack of technical skills, lack of housing facilities, lack of educational opportunities and low level of literacy, high dependency on wage-employment and employment in low-wage occupations.

The MIC is initiating an Affirmative Action Plan to foster a dynamic, self-reliant and progressive community by 2020. The MIC has been working to secure more opportunities through government agencies and through party educational and social institutions in addressing the concerns of the bottom 30%. The next 12 years are very critical.

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UPDATE: (Samy is 50 yrs behind times), from Arab Times

Angry Indian voters could dump ruling party in elections

RINCHING, Malaysia, Feb 25, (AP): With a small knife, plantation worker Ramalingam Tirumalai makes raw incisions on the rubber trees every morning to harvest the oozing gooey latex. Just like the gashes on the trees, Ramalingam says, countless wounds have been inflicted by Malaysia's government on the country's ethnic Indian minority, denying them jobs, education, freedom of religion and most of all dignity. 'We have been independent for 50 years,' the stocky 53-year-old man said of his country, Malaysia. 'But there has been no change in the lives of Indians.' Seething anger among ethnic Indians is likely to singe the government during parliamentary elections on March 8. No one doubts that the National Front coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957, will return to power. But it is expected to fall short of its 2004 landslide, when it won 91 percent of the seats. Anything less than a two-thirds majority would signal plunging support for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Voters are upset by rising prices and a surge in urban crime. Ethnic tensions are also at a high, largely because of the increasing influence of Islam in daily life.

'We need a new kind of leadership,' Ramalingam said in an interview near his plantation in Rinching town, about 45 kms (30 miles) from Malaysia's main city, Kuala Lumpur. The National Front is dominated by the party of the Muslim Malay majority, which make up 60 percent of the country's 27 million people. The Front also has the support of some ethnic Chinese, who are 25 percent of the population, and some Indians, who are eight percent.

Voted Indians have traditionally voted for the Malaysian Indian Congress, their party in the National Front. But now the Indians will 'definitely vote for the opposition,' said S. Nagarajan of the Education, Welfare and Research Foundation, a nonprofit group that represents impoverished ethnic Indians. 'This time there is raw anger.' Indian voters could make a difference in 62 of the 222 constituencies, said Denison Jayasooriya, a political analyst who specializes in Indian affairs. At the time of independence, most Malaysians were poor, regardless of race. An affirmative action program gives Malays preferences in university admission and government jobs, discounted homes and a mandatory 30 percent share of all publicly listed companies. The program lifted the Malay standard of living. The Chinese, already well established in business, continued to flourish. The Indians, however, remained at the bottom of the barrel.

The government denies discriminating against Indians, citing statistics that show the poverty rate among Malays is higher than for Indians. But analysts say the statistics are skewed because the Malay figure includes indigenous tribes that are extremely poor and not ethnically Malay.
Infuriated
Indians were also infuriated when municipal authorities destroyed several Indian temples last year because they were deemed to have been built illegally. The disenchantment exploded on Nov 25 when about 20,000 Indians demonstrated in Kuala Lumpur. Several smaller demonstrations have taken place since. Much of the anger is directed at Samy Vellu, head of the Malaysian Indian Congress party. He is perceived as corrupt and unable to bring about change for Indians. Campaigning last week, he was booed and pelted with eggs, shoes and sandals.

Samy (ABOVE) insists the government has done much to uplift Indians. 'It is not that the Indian community is 50 years backward,' he said. 'Maybe you minus about 40-45 years from the 50. They may be five years backward' compared to the rest of the population. About 85 percent of the ethnic Indians are descendants of indentured laborers brought by the British to work on rubber plantations in the 19th century. The work, where it remains, pays about 200 ringgit ($60; 40 euros) a month. Many plantations were turned into golf courses and luxury home communities in the 1980s and 1990s. The workers lost their jobs and the free housing and schooling that was included.

Other plantations were converted to palm oil, which does not require the skills of rubber tapping, and the Indians were replaced with Indonesian immigrants at lower wages. Most of the former Bukit Jalil rubber estate in Kuala Lumpur was cleared for stadiums and athlete housing for the 1995 Commonwealth Games.
Former workers still live on the last 16-hectare (40-acre) patch, which is slated to become a graveyard. The residents have been classified as squatters and offered two-room rental apartments in a nearby low-cost housing development. Their school and temple will be relocated inside the burial ground, a proposal that has incensed the residents. 'My age is 43 years. I have lived here for 43 years. How can I be a squatter?' said Shanti Vasupillai. 'All I am asking for is our rights.' 'Most probably the elections will be a shock for the government,' she said. 'I can promise you most Indians will vote for opposition this time.'

= == == == == No Hope for MIC in Perai & Bagan Dalam?

UPDATE:
Samy: MIC candidates must 'slog' to win Perai, Bagan Dalam

BUTTERWORTH (Feb 26, 2008): In his own words, MIC president Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu said today that MIC's Perai and Bagan Dalam candidates will have to "slog" to win the two seats. Samy who visited the two constituencies,which were won by the MIC's Datuk K.Rajapathy (Perai) and P.Subbaiyah (Bagan Dalam) in the 2004 general election said today they would have to go door to door to explain to the people. Rajapathy retained the Perai seat which has 36% Indian voters after beating DAP's Chong Eng with a slim 583 majority while Subbaiyah won the Bagan Dalam seat which has 22% Indian voters with a 1,967 majority after defeating DAP's Lim Hock Seng and Keadilan's Abdul Razak Abdul Hamid in 2004.
However ,with recent developments including the Hindraf protests, MIC's chances of retaining the seats with L. Krishnan contesting the Perai seat facing DAP's Prof Dr P.Ramasamy and Subbaiyah facing DAP's A.Tanasekharan, are threatened. Samy, who was visiting the two constituencies for the second time in two weeks announced several goodies for both constituencies, including a RM4 million allocation (RM1 million from state government and RM3 million from the Public Works Department (PWD) to repair eight lifts in six blocks of 21-storey Telok Indah flats which have malfunctioned for years. For the past few years, only four lifts have been in working order and despite numerous requests, the residents failed to get the problems resolved. Only last week, attempts were made to rectify the situation.

Samy said repair work on the lifts was already in progress and would be completed by this week. Asked about the chances of the candidates in the two constituencies, Samy said: "To win the election the candidates have to slog and MIC with other BN partners have to go house to house and discuss with them. "Even though I have contested the general election eight times, now for the ninth time, I still go house to house to see and talk to them to make them understand what needs to be done.
Subbaiyah and Krishnan can do work well, provided they see people personally.
"We have to work very hard, but I'm happy to say we have recovered from below 50% in Bagan Dalam. We are now getting higher and higher. This constituency (Bagan Dalam) is a bit different from Perai. Bagan Dalam is still quite good.
"Perai is recovering because whatever the people were complaining the other day have already been attended to, and I think now they can now look forward to see better things than before," Samy said, adding that attending to the residents grouses had nothing to do with the elections.
He said the construction of a RM4 million market for Chai Leng Park would also begin soon, once the design was completed by his ministry. Asked if these efforts would help cool down the emotions of the Indian population in the two consti-tuencies, Samy said doing these things had nothing to do with their emotions.

"This has nothing to do with understanding the emotion of Indians or anyone. If someone is emotional, he is emotional and we cannot change his emotions. The emotion of a man can only be changed by himself not by others," he added.

Asked about the five Hindraf leaders under ISA detention in Kamunting, Samy said: "I don't know what you are talking about. I only know about BN and MIC and how to win the elections," he added. Earlier, Samy Vellu was again heckled by an angry crowd of Indians upon arrival in the area, but a tight police cordon, including the presence of Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel, prevented any untoward incidents. Similar incidents have happened to Samy Vellu in recent months, including one in Butterworth last week when an angry group of people refused to allow him to leave a school premises in Butterworth and police had to be called in to clear the crowd. Samy was at Subbaiyah's service centre to have his lunch when the group of about 10 men and women tried to meet him. The group, shouting abuses tried to cross the road to the service centre but were prevented by the police. On police advice, Samy and his entourage left in a huff which even further infuriated the crowd which later dispersed after police advised them to do so.

= == = == = =from NST visit to Perai & Bagan Dalam
Samy Vellu said the state government had allocated RM1 million while the federal government had come up with another RM3.5 million to repair the lifts. The government had also allocated another RM4 million to upgrade the Taman Chai Leng wet market.
Asked why the problems were only being attended to now, Samy Vellu said a decision to repair the lifts was made six months ago. However, he said the money was released by the Treasury to the local council before it was redirected to his ministry. “This was not something that could be done in a day or two. Nevertheless, the problem is resolved now,” he said. On the situation in other states, Samy said he was going all over to help MIC candidates in the campaign.

“I am spending one day in Sungai Siput and every other day elsewhere to help campaign for the other MIC candidates,” he said. “I am especially happy with the situation in Johor where the Menteri Besar had taken charge by helping out the MIC’s campaign.”