-M.Manoharan, Letter. December 13, 2012.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has been making repeated announcements on the RM540 million that his government has spent on Tamil schools since he became prime minister.

The latest was at the MIC general assembly last weekend.

I challenge Najib to give a detailed breakdown as to which schools received this allocation.

We must have the names of the respective schools as well as the individual expenditure.

Failure to do so only goes to show that this is just another election ploy to garner Indian votes.

Half a billion ringgit is a colossal figure and we would have seen tremendous improvement in the state of the Tamil schools if such money had indeed been spent.

Instead of plucking figures from the air and attempting to deceive the hapless Indians, he could have made a meaningful and significant gesture by declaring all Tamil schools to be fully-aided at the assembly.

Such a move would ensure that Tamil schools become part of the mainstream national education development.

With such a declaration, the schools would have unhindered access to building funds, adequate teaching staff, furniture and computers.

The headmasters and parent-teacher associations would not have to engage on one fundraising move after another and would be able to channel their limited energies to more constructive activities.

Anyway, the fundraising results were never enough.

It was sad to see the MIC leaders at the assembly, once again, focusing their efforts on lobbying for more Indian support for BN to please the Umno master.

Attention was paid on retaining the 28 seats allocated to the MIC previously as well as delivering the Indian votes to the BN, even if it meant going door to door to canvas for each individual Indian vote.

MIC president G Palanivel detailed the total number of Indian votes at 955,000 and that the Indian voters made up more than 15 percent of the electorate in more than 26 parliamentary constituencies.

Alas, but he was so weak on asking what had Umno and the premier had done to deserve the overwhelming support that he plans to garner from the Indian voters and surrender to the BN on a silver plate.

Of late, the MIC Youth that Palanivel so lavishly praised at the MIC general assembly, has become a joke, preferring to score political points on trivial issues like the ‘Sepang Altar’ episode instead of substantive and meaningful work that will really uplift the well-being of the Indian Malaysian community.

If this is the mind-set of the MIC, then there is little hope for the Indians who choose to vote for the BN in the soon to be announced 13th general election.

M MANOHARAN is assemblyperson for Kota Alam Shah, Selangor.