COMMENT The recent announcement of a whopping nearly RM3 billion financial package for the Indian community has caught everyone by surprise.

Is this real or another public relations exercise by the Treasury to shore up political support for Najib under the present circumstances?As someone jokingly remarked in the Penang state assembly yesterday, was the funds meant for 1MDB?

Three days ago in Putrajaya, Finance Ministry secretary-general Mohammed Irwan Serigar Abdullah announced that between 2012 to 2014, the government allocated RM2.88 billion for the Indian community.

This year alone, the government has allocated RM260 million for Indians.

Funds from the Ministry were channelled to the Indian entrepreneurs development; youth development; Indian women entrepreneurial programmes; Tamil Schools; and for the larger Indian socio-economic development.

At the press meet in Putrajaya, the CEO of Tamil daily Malaysia Nanban, senior Indian officers from the Treasury, and Alliance Bank adviser Manogaran Mottain were present.

Big surprise

While this certainly is good news for the community, it also comes as big surprise to many.

Except maybe for a few, the Indian community is not aware that such a huge sum has been given to it for the last 3 years.

A number of questions emerge regarding the funds.

First, why were there no earlier announcements about the disbursement of the funds from the Treasury?

Second, whether the Treasury could identify and inform the public as to which organisations received the funds and why these organisations were selected and on what criteria.

Traditionally, the government’s money to Indians were given through the MIC but I am not sure whether the government has the same level of confidence in the party now.

Third, can we know as to how much funds were channelled and to what extent the funds were utilised for the projects that were in line with identified areas of concern?

Fourth, can the Treasury provide detailed answers regarding the disbursement of the funds to the Indian public?

Fifth, we are curious whether the recent announcement has anything to do with shoring up support for Prime Minsiter Najib Abdul Razak who is facing growing opposition in the country on the matter of 1MDB?

Unless there is concrete proof of the disbursement of funds, the Indian community is not prepared to accept the ‘good’ news from the Treasury.

Where have all the money gone?

Over the last 20 or 30 years, properties and funds rightfully belonging to the Indian community have been hijacked and stolen by unscrupulous individuals and groups.

Huge projects began, with money collected from poor and working class Indians used to generate money for the rich and powerful.

We hope that money has not been channelled to political parties that have links with BN; Indians have had some really bad experiences of betrayal by political parties.

Following the Hindraf uprising in late 2007, Indians have generally deserted the BN political parties. It would be impossible to rectify the electoral situation.

In the recent Permatang Pauh by-election, the promise of at least 3,000 votes for BN turned out to be a joke.

The party that promised these votes to BN has since then been rather reticent over its failure to garner the crucial votes.

More than 80 percent of Indians in Permatang Pauh voted for PR. If the announcement by the Treasury is simply an act of shoring Indian support for the BN in general and Najib in particular, then this must be a poor exercise.

Sooner or later, Indians will find out that the money never reached the community. Or for that matter, if the funds were hijacked by some quarters, then a strange sense of déjà vu might prevail!