FORMER DAP stalwart Chales Santiago has lent credence to the claim of his once comrade Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy that the welfare and well-being of the Indian community have not been really looked into by the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-led unity government.

Tagging Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari and DAP vice-chairman Nga Kor Ming on the X platform, the outspoken former three-term Klang MP observed that “there is a disconnect between the Selangor State government and Indians” after a visit to Kuala Kubu Baharu (KKB) ahead of the much-awaited state by-election next week (May 11).

“They are not aware or have not received the state’s welfare initiatives like capacity building and entrepreneurial efforts to address income and poverty issues,” opined Santiago who is also the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) chairman. “The perception is that they are being discriminated against.”

Zooming into KKB, the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) chairman (second term since March 2023) pointed out that decades-old housing problems - especially in Bukit Tagar, Nigel Gardner - have not been settled despite promises during every election.

“The people believe there is no political will. Solving the housing issue will go a long way to soften Indian anger,” contended Santiago who was an economist with NGOs such as the Coalition Against Water Privatisation and Monitoring Sustainability of Globalisation Malaysia prior to contesting in the Klang parliamentary seat in 2008.

“People are not interested in ceramah. They want an avenue to express their issues to the authorities, ie state government. It’s the time to set-up a complaints mechanism and actually work on them,” contended Santiago.

‘Fire power’

“Some suggested that MB @AmirudinShari meet the Indian community in order to respond to the various grievances of the community, especially when the community is upset and looking at alternatives. Hope he takes up the requests.”

The mild-mannered criticism of Santiago pales in comparison with that of Ramasamy even though both found themselves not selected to contest in the 15^th General Election (GE15) on Nov 19, 2022 and six states polls on Aug 12 last year respectively.

In his latest Facebook post, the former Penang chief minister who is now the United Rights of Malaysian Party (Urimai) interim council chairman said his new-found movement will be proposing a series of reforms to the government of the day “to lighten the weight of ethnic discrimination”.

“The most important reform is of the educational system that deprives qualified students, especially the non-Malays from gaining entry to the matriculation and public universities,” the former Perai state assemblyman pointed out.

“As it is, only 10% of the places in matriculation programme are given to the non-Malays. Of the 10%, Indians don’t even get 5%. More 80% of public universities entry are from the Bumiputra community. Non-Malay entry is about 18%.

“Most of the places in the strategic disciplines are given to the Bumiputra community. The question is how can qualified non-Malays, particularly Indians, can use education to advance their careers if they don’t get an equal opportunity to education in the country.” - May 4, 2024

https://focusmalaysia.my/charles-santiago-echoes-ramasamys-views-of-unity-govt-having-ignored-indians-welfare-well-being/