KUALA LUMPUR: A “national blueprint” to help the Malaysian Indian community will be unveiled in January, the prime minister, Najib Razak, announced today, while expressing disappointment that decisions he had previously made for the community had not been fully implemented.
Najib said a secretariat would be formed to ensure the blueprint was executed effectively.
“Before this there were hitches in implementation (of plans for the community) whereby decisions I made were not executed well down the line, there were setbacks,” he said in a speech at the MIC annual conference.
“I am disappointed that the decisions I made (for the community before this) were not fully implemented,” he said.
He said a strong secretariat would be set up “for proper follow through so that there is no interference in the decisions we make”.
“I keep pushing for these programmes but there is a push back. I push, and there is a push back. It’s an implementation problem down the line. A lot of my decisions are not executed fully,” he said.
Najib said a lot of issues had been raised by MIC president Dr. S. Subramaniam, which he agreed with. “I am also frustrated but the system has its push back. We must do something for the implementation to be more effective,” he said.
Najib, who is Barisan Nasional chairman, urged the Indian community to remain united as one party.
“It is obvious that all the internal crisis inside MIC relating to its leadership is over. This assembly signifies a new chapter for the party,” he said. “If MIC wants to be a credible party, one that can serve the Indian community in the country, it needs to be a united party in the real sense of the word,” he said.
The MIC was riven by an internal power struggle between supporters of Dr Subramaniam and his ousted predecessor G Palanivel, which ended with the intervention of the Registrar of Societies following complaints of irregularities in the party’s elections.