MIC President Samy Vellu

The Malaysian Indian Congress, which is part of Malaysia's ruling front Barisan Nasional, is seeking an eight per cent share for ethnic Indians in Malaysia's civil services, commensurate with the population.

Voicing the demand, MIC chief and former minister, 72-year-old S. Samy Vellu, who defied critics last week by refusing to step down as Congress president before his term officially expires in 2012, said the number of Indians hired as civil servants fluctuated between 3.5
per cent and less than five per cent every year.

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multilingual society, though racial tensions have been rising in recent months, spurred by Malaysian Indians' demands for political recognition and socio-economic equality. The country's 27 million population comprises

62 per cent (largely Muslim) Malays, 24 per cent Chinese, and eight per cent Indians.
"It is only fair if we have about eight per cent representation in the civil service as that should be sufficient to look into the problems plaguing the Indian community," Vellu told party colleagues late last week.

He said a MIC delegation would soon meet Senator Amirsham A. Aziz, minister in the prime minister's department, to discuss employment and economic issues and opportunities affecting the community, New Straits Times said.

These include the formation of an investment-based foundation such as Permodalan Nasional Bhd and a special fund to increase the equity ownership of the Indian community to three per cent. "Our community used to control 1.5 per cent of equity and now it's down to only 1.2 per cent," said Vellu, adding that the government had not provided enough opportunities for Indians to grow.

He also criticised government-linked companies (GLCs) and agencies handling loans for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for not providing business opportunities to the Indian community, especially in the petroleum and automotive industries.

"We are very unhappy over the fact that Indian applicants who applied for SME loans are either rejected or ignored," said Vellu, who lost in his ninth bid at re-election last month.
Meanwhile, a state legislature in Malaysia is about to make history by appointing an ethnic Indian as its speaker.

The ruling parties in Perak state have made a unanimous decision, although the legislator has not been named. The likely candidate could be 37-year-old V. Sivakumar, legislator from Tronoh constituency, who won on the Democratic Action Party (DAP) nomination, The Star newspaper said. "This will be a historic moment for Perak as well as the country. There has never been an Indian speaker in any of the 13 state assemblies since 1957," said M. Kulasegaran, DAP national vice-chairman and MP from Ipoh Barat.
- IANS