DAP Ponggal Message By DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng And MP For Bagan In Kuala Lumpur On 14.1.2013.
The Indian Community Has Given BN 56 Years To Build A House And The Time Has Come To Change To Allow PR To Do What Is Right Based On Integrity, Justice And Good Governance.
In celebrating a new beginning under Ponggal Festival, the time has come to change to the new way of governance by doing what is right for the people instead of doing right for oneself. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has asked the Indian community to give the Barisan Nasional (BN) a new mandate and time to resolve their problems by stating that when we build a house, it will take time.
This is shocking admission of failure as the Indian community has given BN 56 years and by Najib’s own admission, we have only seen the frames. If Najib is sincere, he should first explain why BN failed to complete building the house even though every opportunity has been given during these 56 years.
The Indians have placed their trust or Nambikei in BN and were not respected when Tamil schools were neglected, Hindu temples torn down and Indians marginalized with forcible eviction from estates. Only when PR state governments took over in 2008 by allocating funds yearly for Tamil schools and Hindu temples as well as giving land, did the BN government respond for the first time with funds.
Even then the Indians are not given the opportunity to manage their own religious and cultural affairs like the Penang Hindu Endowment Board. DAP urges that a Malaysia Indian Endowment Board be established to allow Indians to manage their own religious and cultural affairs as has been done in Penang.
Further the Penang state government had also resolved the Kampung Buah Pala issue where BN had secretively sold off the land without adequate compensation to the Indian villagers, by offering double-storey terrace houses valued at RM800,000/-. DAP regrets the lies made by the Prime Minister that PR did not resolve the Kampung Buah Pala issue when it is only because of PR that Kampung Buah Pala is still alive and exists at the same place in Penang today.
The Indian community has given BN 56 years to build a house and the time has come to change to allow PR to do what is right based on integrity, justice and good governance.
LIM GUAN ENG