Prime Minister Najib’s comment at the MIEC Forum last sunday that the Indian business will be eligible for RM 180 million by various mechanism through MIEC clearly does not address other substantive issues affecting the Indian business community, P. Sivakumar of Malaysian Indian Business Association (MIBA) and Mohana Krishnan of Malaysian Indian Entrepreneurs and Professionals (MIE) said in a joint statement today.
They want to know whether the government will change its policy of Bumiputra only and allow competent Indians to participate in the government and GLC sector contracts.
“MIE and MIBA, instead, ask the government if it will change Bumiputra only policies in the government sector and GLC sector and will now allow competent Indians to participate, whether in small, medium or large contracts?
“As long as these Bumiputra only policies are left untouched, the RM180 million promised by the Prime Minister will disappear in the thin air, with no really needy Indian Businessmen benefitting from it. MIE and MIBA cannot understand how RM180 million will ever change the graph of Indian equity.
“As of now, no GLC allows non-Bumi suppliers/vendors to participate in its businesses. Will this change?”, they asked.
They want the government to allow them to take over one GLC and run it, if the government is serious about promoting the Indian economic progress.
They said, “If the government is really committed to support Indian economic elevation, we ask the government to give the Indians one GLC to takeover and run. We can use this as a vehicle to develop and support Indian businessmen, prove our worth and chart our course.”
Why only them and not us?
According to MIBA and MIE, the government had given millions to the tycoons, GLCs and NPLs and had forgiven or forgotten about it. They asked why not they also be given such consideration.
“The Malaysian government has forgiven, and /or forgotten the several hundreds of million ringgits (and up to billions!) given to tycoons and GLCs NPLs”, they pointed out and said, “We are now asking the government to forgive ALL of the NPLs by the Indians especially from the 2008 BSN Micro finance scheme. Then, all these people can get back to doing business again. If the government is truly supportive of the Indian needs, then this is a small sacrifice.”
To MIBA and MIE “RM180 million is too little, too late.”
“But to complement the various mechanism”, they recommend that “the government must undertake other strategic initiatives to elevate the marginalised Indian business community to mainstream economic life and support various measures to increase the ‘capacity building’ for long term positive effect on the Indian business community, namely :-
– Enhance business knowledge through colleges on entrepreneurship;
– Financial facilities for start-up and setting up incubators / business angles;
– Government can do through policies, licensing methods, tendering processes, awards of contract, grants and business opportunities;
– Open doors to GLC’s vendor supplier contracts and perhaps eliminate ‘Bumiputera only’ policies for business; and
– Public Service Commission and Public Services Department to make a solemn declaration that the government will be fair and transparent in all recruitment in civil service and that racial or regional discrimination will not be tolerated. In this respect a civil service ombudsman should act on cases of racial discrimination within the service as well as respond to allegations of racially biased policies and programmes. A mono-ethnic civil service is the single biggest obstacle to 1Malaysia.
They claim that “Both MIBA and MIE have a joint membership of more than 1500 businessmen and professionals throughout Malaysia, and we can engage with the government to work to elevate the Indians in Malaysia.”
