PM Anwar: The unity govt isn’t neglecting Indians
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim assured the Indian community that the unity government that he leads are not neglect them.
To prove his point, he said that additional allocations are being provided for the Indian community to upgrade their socio-economic status via Tekun Nasional and Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia aside from the RM100 million through the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra).
“If representatives of the Indian community speak to me (about the welfare of the community), I will try to solve it. Look, some people say Mitra (has issues), but that’s not true. Mitra alone (received) RM100 million.
“Under Tekun (for) small Indian traders, we added RM50 million, and previously Amanah Ikhtiar was for poor villagers, we helped everyone.
“Now, we also added RM50 million to Amanah Ikhtiar for the Indian community, so it’s not true to say we don’t care,” he said at an event with the Indian community in Tambun here today.
He added that additional focus would be given to ensure Indians also receive technical and vocational education and training (TVET).
“I also told Petronas to give scholarships to the Indian community. Previously, it focused on the Malay community, which is okay, but now for the Indian community, training and staffing opportunities are available while more than 1,000 scholarships have been provided.
“So if the (Indian) community leaders do not talk about this and only express anger, people will not sympathise. Complaints are okay, but don’t say things like Anwar does not care at all. This is not true, see all that we have provided, and these are all new.”
He has also requested Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek to train more Tamil language teachers.
“(The national language) is Malay, but if Chinese children want to learn Mandarin, we give them the opportunity. We don’t lose anything; our country benefits if our children know Tamil, Chinese and Arabic,” he said.
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