Indians sidelined under PM Anwar’s administration? Not true, says senator

Deputy National Unity minister, Senator K Saraswathy rubbished claims by the opposition that the Indian community has been sidelined by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s administration.

She claimed that the claims were “misconception propagated by certain quarters”.

“This is completely untrue and does not reflect the government’s ongoing commitment to the well-being and progress of all Malaysians, including the Indian community,” she said, Malaysiakini reported.

To prove it, she cited the additional financial allocations for MIC’s AIMST University and MIC’s education arm Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED) scholarships.

Concerns such as late birth registrations have been dealt since 2023 and scholarships were also given for Indian youths in TVET education.

“The government also announced the ‘TVET for All’ initiative, ensuring Tamil school leavers and Indian youths have access to technical education and job placement schemes, particularly through partnerships between government and non-governmental agencies.

“In addition to that, the Malaysian Indian Skill Initiative or Misi has been set up under the Human Resources Ministry with an allocation of RM30 million,” she added.

A study and intervention plan to arrest the issue of school dropout rates aming students too have been launched, led by National Social Council.

“This effort follows numerous engagements with community stakeholders and is also in line with the government’s Madani agenda of ensuring no community is left behind,” she added.

She also said that the government wants to implement resolutions from the recent National Hindu Temple Conference.

The resolutions called for the following:

Improving temple land ownership and legalisation, ensuring temple sites are properly gazetted and protected.

Strengthening temple governance with capacity-building programmes for temple committees to improve management and transparency.

Transforming temples into centres of social, cultural development, education, and community service.

Empowering Indian youth through TVET conducted at the temple facilities.

Securing increased allocations for temple maintenance and development.

She added that the Indian entrepreneurs would be also getting micro credit facilities to ease the syariah compliance requirements.