Speech by M Kula Segaran, DAP National Vice Chairman
at DAP Ceramah held in Buntong, Ipoh on
Tuesday, April 16, 2013.
Indian voters will play their kingmaker role again on
polling day!
A few days ago, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib said
that the Indian community can be the determining force in the upcoming 13th
general election although the community is not the majority in any
parliamentary or state constituency.
In fact, the prime minister said, Indians had a big
role because their percentage as voters in most constituencies could be the
determinant in any of them.
"We saw the dismal performance of the Barisan
Nasional (BN) in 2008 and among the factors was
the Indian community's reduced support for the BN.
I certainly agree that the Indian voters will be the
kingmakers in many constituencies and in fact the significant swing of
Indian votes against BN in the 2008 general election caused BN to suffer its
worst ever electoral debacle.
There are 60
Parliamentary seats which have over 10% Indians as registered voters. In these
constituencies, the Indians will be a
strength to be reckoned with. Of these , Perak has 11 and Selangor has 16
Parliamentary seats exceeding 10% registered voters.
Ipoh Barat has 25% Indians as registered voters, the second highest in the country after Kota
Raja which has about 29%.
Since assuming the position of Prime Minister more
than 4 years ago, Najib has tried hard to woo the Indian voters.
He has talked about Nambikei and asked the Indian
community to trust him.
Can the Indian community trust him and the BN
government?
BN has ruled this country for more than 5 decades and
has enjoyed strong support from the Indian community.
But what are the rewards for the Indian
community?
The Indian community is marginalized to the extent
that many Indians feel they are underclass or third class citizens in their own
beloved country- Malaysia.
What has Najib really done for the community? Has he done enough
to correct the long neglect done to the Indians?
Despite realizing that Indian support is important to
BN and despite having been described as a leader who has gone to the ground to
listen to the people, Najib has not done much for the Indian community.
The likely reason is that he and BN think that the Indian
community can be easily wooed back.
Let me tell BN leaders that they are wrong.
The Indian community has awakened and they will not
easily give their trust and support to the BN government which has failed them
for more than 5 decades.
In fact, I am confident that the Indian voters will
rise to the occasion come polling day and help bring about a bigger political
tsunami to topple the BN governme
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