Malay Indian leaders blamed for being out of touch with the community needs

Kuala Lumpur, Apr 26 : Leaders of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in Malaysia, which largely represents the Indian community here, has expressed their dis-satisfaction and anger at the Malay Indian leaders in top posts for being out of touch with the community's needs.

They criticised newly sworn in Chief Minister-II of Penang Dr P. Ramasamy, for "failing to represent the Indian community".

Penang is the second largest state in Malaysia after Perlis and has Chinese as the majority of its population.

The Indian Malaysian leaders particular took an exception at Ramasamy's recent remark that he does not represent the Indian community.

Ramasamy is the first Indian Malaysian to be sworn-in as a deputy chief minister in any Malaysian state.

"Even though we have an Indian deputy chief minister, he has done nothing to ensure that we are represented in the administration. Worse still, some members of the previous government are still serving the current administration and holding important positions. Why can't we have our own grassroots appointed to the local council and government agencies?" the staronline.com quoted one DAP leader as saying who attended the party's Indian Affairs and Cultural Bureau meeting on Thursday.

"It was a very fiery discussion with many long-time party members criticising Dr Ramasamy. Many were hurt by his reported remark that he 'does not represent the Indian community' because we have very high expectations of him. We have been marginalised for so long and now, instead of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - all we see is darkness," he said, adding that the state's three other Indian assemblymen were also out of touch with the community's needs.

ANI