PAKATAN Harapan has thrashed the Malaysian Indian Blueprint (MIB), saying that the document is not in depth and has failed to address the problems faced by the Indian community.

PKR vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar said the 168-page document is just an election gimmick by the BN government.

He said that the reports in MIB were flawed and there were many shortcomings.

“We want the government to relook the blueprint. There must be targeted timelines and groups.

“They said they are targeting the B40 group but where are the figures. If there is no target then how do they quantify what is achievable or not?” he said at a press conference at the PKR headquarters.

B40 refers to families with a household income of RM3,855 and below.

Ahead of the next general election, the government has announced more than RM1 billion in allocations to the Indian community under the MIB in April.

Prime Minister Najib Razak said RM500 million would be allocated to the Permodalan Nasional Bhd unit trust investment scheme for B40 category Indians.

Xavier said that according to the report Indians at the bottom 40% (IB40) are facing several glaring problems including income inequality, house ownership, statelessness, youth unemployment and education.

The Seri Andalas assemblyman also said the IB40 only receives a meagre 17% of total income among the B40 group, underlining the problem of income inequality.

“Poverty will not be eradicated if there is no political will to address the problem.The MIB had approached the problem within an Indian silo and fails to recognise the hardships faced by the B40 group.

“The report stated that 40% of Indian youth were unemployed in 2015 and 81% from the IB40 household does not have sufficient savings to support three months saving expenses,” he said.

On the issue of citizenship, Xavier said they will solve the issue of statelessness within six months of taking over Putrajaya.

“PH will mobilise the entire state machinery to solve the issue for all Indian Malaysians as opposed to Najib Razak plans to solve it in another 10 years,” he said.

Xavier also touched on education and Tamil schools where 25,000 Indians are excluded from education.

“The report states that Indian made up only 4% of students accepted into public universities in 2014/2015 and they plan to achieve the goal of 7% in 10 years.

“We can achieve that in half the time proposed by the MIB. The MIB also said it will take 10 years to make changes to Tamil schools.

“In five years we have equipped 41 Tamil schools with computer labs costing RM3,118. We has also given RM17 million to 97 Tamil schools for development.

“In comparison the government has spent RM800 million on Tamil schools but 60% don’t have computer labs,” he said.

Xavier also chided the government for not including PH in the MIB creative process.

“The Indian opposition MPs in parliament outnumbers Indian BN MPs. However, we were denied and left out in the development of the blueprint. We should be included in the process,” he said.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said that Seed, a flagship project under MIB for Indian entrepreneurs, have claimed to have assisted 29,115 individuals secure loans totalling RM1.2 billion directed to T20 and M40 groups.

“However many Indians in the M40 and B40 don’t qualify for the loans. As a result they resort to loan sharks.

“We want the government to commit RM1 billion and grants for the IB40 and IM40,” he said. – May 26, 2017.