9th Malaysia Plan: Voices of the Indian Malaysians Grassroots

As part of the European Union funded project ‘Community Centres for the Empowerment of Indian Women in Malaysia’, ERA Consumer Malaysia, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the Malaysia Indian Educational Development Association (TheMind) organized a forum with grass roots and community leaders from the Indian Malaysian community to gather inputs for the 9th Malaysia Plan.

The EU-funded project has enabled FNF and ERA to set up 10 Community Centres across Malaysia in areas of high Indian Malaysian population. The work of the Community Centres entail close interaction with the people as well as local leaders in the communities allowing first-hand knowledge and a real view of the situation of the people in the communities.

The focus was on three key areas of economic, social and educational aspects. Recommendations were based on the aim of providing tools and policy changes that would bring about an improved social standing, educational level, human capital development and help increase the economic equity of the Indian Malaysian population. The bulk of them dealt with creating a social support structure to tackle the root cause of crimes and providing opportunities in terms of educational, skill training and employment.

The underlying strategy is to create a self-reliant society and centre on empowerment tools that will assist the Indian Malaysian community to strengthen their position. As such less than 20 per cent of requests pertain to financial support or subsidies from the government.

The forum brought together distinguished panelist and participants comprising academicians, corporate leaders, business people, senior civil servants, civil society activists and other local community leaders. The structure of the forum allowed for detailed discussion amongst groups resulting in feedback and suggestions that were based on an assessment of the Eight Malaysia Plan, and where things stand today.

Feedback from the grassroots gathered at the forum was put together in a report submitted to the drafting committee for the Ninth Malaysia Plan. It is expected that these recommendations if and when incorporated into the Plan, will help bring about a positive change and allow the poorer section of society to benefit from Malaysia’s economic development.

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