Dato' Seri @vellpaari : #Bersih4 has failed to win the hearts and minds of the Indian community #MIC

PRESS STATEMENT BY

Dato' Sri S. Vell Paari
Communication and Public Relations Chief
Malaysian Indian Congress

Enough is enough. On the 29 till 31 August 2015, the nation observed one of its darkest moment when an opposition led NGO, BERSIH together with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) of Malaysia tried to hijacked and sabotaged our annual National Day celebrations by having an illegal demonstration in and around Dataran Merdeka to demand the resignation of a democratically elected Prime Minister whose 14 party strong coalition won the majority seats in Parliament to form a government.

Notwithstanding the above, the illegal demonstration, dubbed #Bersih4 saw the participation of majorities who are aligned and supporters of the DAP. The demonstration did not receive traction from the ethnic Indian community and it was obvious from the start that hidden hands were behind this illegal demonstration and the NGO was just a front to disguise the real "masterminds". 

In the course of the illegal demonstrations, supporters of DAP had behaved in an uncivilized and rude manner such as stomping on pictures of leaders, using offensive language as well as erecting mock shrines. These above actions has hurt the feelings of many Malaysians locally and abroad.

As for the Indian community, MIC have and will always look after their wellbeing. MIC as an institution have the network and resources to protect the interest of the community. 

Realising this, the ethnic Indian community had stayed away from #Bersih4 as there was just no benefit in attending the illegal demonstrations and asking for the resignation of a democratically elected Prime Minister i.e. Datuk Seri Haji Najib Tun Razak.

In fact, since assuming the premiership on 3rd April 2009, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has done extraordinarily a lot for the ethnic Indian community. Some of the actions taken by the Prime Minister for the wellbeing of the community which includes an additional RM100 million fund for skills training as well as RM50 million in loans to be disbursed by Tekun Nasional for small enterprises as well as by Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia. We in the MIC and the community as a whole appreciate the effort taken by the Prime Minister.

That is why MIC will continue to work hard to win the hearts and minds of the Indian community to ensure the effort taken by the Prime Minister is not in vain.