AHEAD of the next general election, the government has announced more than RM1 billion in allocations to the Indian community under the Malaysian Indian Blueprint.
 
Prime Minister Najib Razak said RM500 million would be allocated to the Permodalan Nasional Bhd unit trust investment scheme for B40 category Indians.
 
B40 refers to families with a household income of RM3,855 and below.
 
Najib said the government would also increase the revolving fund for Indian entrepreneurs by RM150 million to make it RM500 million.
 
The Malaysian Indian Blueprint also outlines a higher enrolment of Indians in public universities, polytechnics and colleges to 7%, while  Indian participation in the civil service would also increase to 7% by 2026.
 
For Indian students who have difficulty pursuing higher education,  Najib said RM40 million would be allocated to them over the next four years.

Najib also promised to set up within the home ministry a special approval system for the citizenship of Indians who had been in Malaysia before 1957. He said the government would launch a nationwide campaign to facilitate the citizenship acquisition process.

The Special Unit Programme for the Socioeconomic Development of the  Indian Community will also be restructured to address current concerns.

“The Indian socioeconomic status has caused an increase in criminal activity among the Indians, especially among the youths.

“This blueprint will focus on four main factors, which is to meet the basic needs of the community, realise each child’s potential, improve livelihoods and wealth, and increase social inclusion.”

Najib said special systems would be in place to ensure the key performance indicators of the blueprint were achieved.

“We will also have the Grant Management System integrated into this mechanism to manage applications, approvals and monitoring of all funds disbursed through non-governmental organisations.”

The Malaysian Indian Blueprint is a 10-year plan to be fully implemented by the end of 2027. It aims to cater for the basic needs, improve education, increase employment and entrepreneurship, and increase social inclusion of the community. 

“Some say this is just an election gimmick. But we all know that this blueprint was announced in 2015 and we will guarantee to engage, implement and monitor towards delivering all the targets over the next 10 years,” said Najib.

Both the ruling and opposition coalitions have lately ramped up their election machinery in preparation for the 14the general election, which must be called before the middle of next year. – April 23, 2017.