“Hollow Budget 2025 for Indian community”

Focus Malaysia:

“Hollow Budget 2025 for Indian community”

By Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy

INDIAN sycophantic leaders in Pakatan Harapan (PH)-led coalition particularly in the PKR and DAP are the first to praise Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for presenting the Budget 2025 that takes care of the Indian community.

The Budget 2025 has an allocation of RM130 mil for the socio-economic development of the Indian community. This amount is nothing but a pittance to the community that largely consists of the working class.

Yet, the Indian sycophants in the PH-led coalition praised Anwar for thinking and acting in the interest of the welfare and wellbeing of the community. They went to the extent of citing instances of other government assistance to the Indian community.

However, these sycophantic leaders forgot the fact that Anwar allocated RM2 bil for Islamic religious affairs. Needless to say, the other allocations in the overall budget will stand to benefit the Malays more than the Chinese and Indians.

If the government can allocate RM2 bil for Muslim religious affairs, then it goes without saying that the kind of benefits that might accrue to the Malays in general. The non-Malays have no complaints about the government’s assistance to the Malays, but why the overt discrimination of the non-Malays, particularly Indians. What have they done to beget such a disservice from the government of the day?

Despite the philosophical justification of Anwar on the basis of quoting of Arab, Chinese and Indian texts, the Budget 2025 is very much a mundane and ordinary account of the government’s expenditure and income. Tweaking the budget here and there with sweeteners does not make the budget acceptable to the ordinary Malaysians.

Anwar might quote from the Tamil Thirukkural, an ancient script, but such a reference does little to do justice to the Indian Tamil community in the country. Despite the Herculean sacrifice of Indians in building the nation, they are least respected and rewarded for their services as citizens of the country.

In the future, it would be better and wiser for Anwar not to insult the Indian community by quoting verses from the ancient respected text Thirukkural. Moreover, Anwar in his presentation, could not even pronounce properly the ancient Tamil words of the Thirukkural so much so that there was laughter in the Parliament as to his horribly poor pronunciation.

It doesn’t matter if Indians are not respected in the country, but Anwar should not quote from the Thirukkural to make fun of the ancient sacred text. Tamils in Malaysia value and respect the sacred text so much that they don’t want Anwar to misuse the text for his own cheap political popularity.

Anwar is not that clever after all. He might quote from the world’s ancient texts, but such an act does not detract from the point that the PM is nothing but a purveyor of political discourse that gives primacy to the Malay Muslim hegemonic interests in the country.

In this respect, Anwar is no different from the earlier predecessors or former prime ministers, with the exception that he can disguise his ulterior motives better than them. – Oct 19, 2024



Former DAP stalwart and Penang chief minister II Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is chairman of the United Rights of Malaysian Party (Urimai) interim council.