Give land to ex employees of Bukit Jalil estate

16/11/11

( YB Nizar, Dr. JayaKumar, YB Sivakumar, YB Chang Meng Kai, ex employees of Bukit Jalil estate and many more attended our function to demand a 4acrea of land for 41 employees of Bukit Jalil estate. My speech is as follows. )

After the 308 general election where BN lost its traditional Indian support, one would have thought that BN would do more for the Indian community so as to regain the much needed votes for the next general election.

But this does not seem to be the case.

Till today, we have not seen much and significant policy changes or introduction aimed at bringing long awaited economic benefits to the Indian community.

Worse, even long standing woes faced have not been addressed.

The plight of the former Bukit Jalil estate workers is one such case.

Their plight has again highlighted the lack of political will of the BN government to resolve the long standing problem faced by Indian estate workers, that is, the lack of protection to the workers when estates are developed.

How could a government that has always claimed to be sensitive to the peoples’ needs failed to resolve such an issue?

Lately, the prime minister said that he has been listening to the peoples’ voices. But has he been listening to the voices of estate workers’?

Is he aware that in 1973, his late father Tun Abdul Razak had introduced the Estate Workers Revolving Fund for House Ownership scheme aimed at helping estate workers to buy houses and pay through salary deductions?

Is he aware that this scheme though good in intention had unfortunately failed to help the estate workers due to the problem of lack of implementation and enforcement?

But at least the late Prime Minister Tun Razak saw the need to help the estate workers’ to own houses.

Dato Sri Najib should therefore display the necessary political will and introduce laws which will ensure that the estate workers’ rights are protected when estates are developed.

In the case of former Bukit Jalil estate workers, the Prime Minister should lend his support as not only these workers have made much contribution and sacrifices towards nation building, their demand for 4 acres of land is also fair and reasonable.

DAP declares our full support for this campaign.

If the Prime Minister is not prepared to listen to the plight of these former estate workers who have been so unfairly treated, then all the present and former estate workers must ignore the BN candidates when they come appealing for support at the next general election.

The plight of the former Bukit Jalil estate workers proves that BN has not learned the lessons of the last general election.

Perhaps BN is confident that it has managed to regain the lost ground since the last general election and can therefore take the Indian support for granted.

The Indian voters must therefore teach BN a bigger lesson at the next general election.