LETTER | 7 reasons why Indians should not vote BN-MIC in GE15

LETTER | This letter is in reference to the letter titled “GE15 provides a good chance for MIC revival” by V Thomas published on Oct 24.

Here are my seven reasons why Indians should not vote for BN-MIC:

1) In Budget 2022, the government led by Umno, which also included MIC, only allocated three percent to non-Malays when it should have been 30 percent based on the latest census report indicating that Chinese and Indians made up 30 percent of the population. This unjust allocation was highlighted by PKR MP from Pasir Gudang in this KiniTV report.

Why did MIC keep quiet and not raise the alarm about this unfair allocation? What assurance is there that the MIC will fight for fair allocation to Malaysian Indians in the future?

2) Everybody knows that a former president of Umno is in jail. The current president faces 47 court cases for money laundering, corruption and breach of trust involving a staggering sum of RM100 million. Suspicions remain about the wealth of several Umno leaders despite being cleared by the courts. Recently, there was an expose on the littoral combat ship scandal worth RM6 billion possibly implicating key Umno leaders.

Umno and MIC leaders always harp on slogans of "stability and prosperity" but why should Indians trust their future in the hands of dubious Umno and MIC leaders?

3) Umno and MIC leaders seem to lack new ideas to help the Indians. Both Umno and MIC have been in power for 65 years since independence with the exception of a brief 22 months, and yet nothing new came out from both parties as to how to help the Indians.

4) Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, despite his relatively short stint in politics, seems to have ideas for a better and more inclusive Malaysia which will benefit Malaysian Indians as well. You can watch his speech in Parliament as reported by KiniTV here.

Perhaps Indians can give Pakatan Harapan-Muda alliance a chance to prove their capability.

5) Maika Holdings, Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED) and the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) seem to be mired in scandals and scammers despite nearly millions of ringgit in allocation involving MIC itself as seen in numerous news reports. Has MIC leadership done anything to stop these scandals? Harapan chairperson has vowed to conduct a forensic audit and perhaps Indians should support this initiative by voting for Harapan and not BN-MIC.

6) A needs-based approach rather than a race-based approach is the way forward to tackling the problem of poverty among all the races in Malaysia. Under a needs-based approach, affirmative action is given only to poor B40 Malaysians regardless of race. Syed Saddiq emphasised this idea via his Facebook video during Deepavali recently. Do Umno and MIC have the political will to abandon their traditional race-based approach for a needs-based approach regardless of race?

7) Despite coming up with the Malaysian Indian Blueprint, it is a fact that Najib Abdul Razak has been found guilty and jailed. Remains to be seen if leaders succeeding Najib in Umno as well as MIC has the same determination to implement the Malaysian Indian Blueprint. There is hardly any mention of it from MIC from 2020 when they took power through a backdoor government until now.

In my opinion, the aspiration, interests and future of Malaysian Indians are best served by not voting for BN-MIC.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.