Rafizi outlines how BERSAMA and he will help the Indian Community!

Kuala Lumpur: Bersama leaders Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi have been travelling the length and breadth of the country explaining the newly minted party’s policies and aims to their members and supporters. In one such meeting, an Indian participant asked Rafizi, “What is the solution that Bersama will offer to Malaysian citizens of Indian descent so that we can live in harmony with other races?”

Replying to the question, Rafizi said: “Every incoming government tends to announce allocations for MITRA, announcing funds for this and that. Then, they showcase Indian leaders scrambling to control government agencies so that they can show off that they are the ones distributing the money. Then people will ask, even back when I was the Economy Minister, people would ask, ‘What exactly is being allocated specifically for the Indian community? You may not like my answer, Raj (name of the person who posed the question), but this is what I truly believe”.

Rafizi continues: “If we are given the opportunity, first and foremost, I just want to remove the distinction where people feel they have to beg. I don’t want a system segmented for an Indian child or a poor Chinese child… it is an illusion when a government stands up and says, “I am better for the Indians because I did this, that, and the other.” I want whoever is qualified to get it based strictly on needs, so that our people stop calculating and obsessing over who gets what and who gets left out. We want to flatten the field so we can move forward. Whoever requires assistance will receive it. But of course, everyone says the exact same thing. Even PKR made those exact promises before entering government, claiming it would be based on needs. That is why Nik and I joined PKR, and the reason we were in PKR is not that I am somehow “less Malay.” I come from a poor Malay family in Terengganu. But if you truly understand the psychology of poverty, the absolute last thing you want to do is beg”

Rafizi further said in his reply: “PKR promised all sorts of things, saying everything would be based on needs. But once you enter government, you become reluctant to change. When we say “based on needs,” just like Nik mentioned earlier, the devil is always in the details. For instance, consider a Malay child from Damansara who scores 11As. On paper, it is 11As. But if there is a poor Chinese or Indian child from a rural area who scores 7As under harsh conditions, you and I both know that the rural child is actually more qualified for that placement than the one with 11As. And the reverse is also true. If there is a non-Malay child from Damansara, Chinese or Indian, who scores 11As, but there is a Malay child from Gua Musang who scores 8As, comes from a poor family, and has to take a train just to get to school, you know that the Malay child actually deserves it more than the non-Malay from Damansara. I wish we could graduate to that level of thinking. But it must start with the government. We have to set the criteria right. We have to be brave. We must convince the Malays, the Chinese, and the Indians of exactly what ‘based on needs’ means.”

“We need to move past the rhetoric. People have been hearing the slogan “based on needs” for decades. But what does it actually mean in practice? That is the real problem. Once in government, nobody wants to touch it because they worry, “Oh, this group will get angry, or that group will get upset.” Well, the government must have the courage. We hope Bersama possesses that courage. I have the courage to point out that this isn’t about whether someone is Malay, Chinese, or Indian. I will defend a non-Malay Chinese or Indian child from a poor background in Jempol. If they deserve a spot more than my own child living in Putrajaya, I will defend them. And likewise, I hope the argument remains consistent across the board,” Rafizi further said.

“Our problem is usually that when it comes to opportunities, bloody politicians take full advantage. Yes. If just two or three Chinese or Indian students fail to get a placement, certain politicians will make noise indefinitely just to position themselves as heroes. But they never actually go back and try to fix the underlying systemic problem. So it becomes like an annual flood, a recurring event. It happens every single year. And I feel bad for minorities, for the Chinese, and for the Indians, because it makes it look as if you have to beg, which I absolutely despise. Because if I were in your shoes, and I have been in that position, coming from a working-class family, the last thing we want to do is beg. If we deserve something, give it to us automatically. That is why all of this depends heavily on how we design the execution of government in detail. It is no longer just about policy; it is entirely about implementation. When we claim we want to distribute aid based on need, does the government actually have complete household information for every single family in Malaysia? Who is struggling, who has disabilities, who has dependents to support, or who is chronically ill? They don’t. And that is exactly what we tried to accomplish through PADU, even though people were angry. The reason is that when you remove the political arguments and refer to a single, thoroughly verified source of reference, it becomes very difficult to argue. For example, if a database shows that an Indian child from Jempol is objectively more qualified to enter university than my child or Nik’s child, who is living comfortably in KL, the decision is clear. It becomes undisputable because we know exactly what the parent does for a living, their financial status, and the distance the child has to travel to school. To eliminate arguments and political manoeuvring, we must rely strictly on data,” Rafizi continued.

“I think once you put that infrastructure in place, it becomes much harder for people to politicise it. The same applies to financial aid. I don’t like a system where people constantly have to apply and plead. To me, if I qualify, I should receive it automatically. If you don’t want to give it, then don’t announce it. Don’t go around making grand public announcements only for people to be rejected later with a laundry list of excuses about who is eligible and who is not after they apply. You said you wanted to give it, so handle everything systematically at the back end. I believe we need to focus heavily on changing that mechanism rather than relying on the typical political promises politicians make. Hopefully, if we can achieve that, we can completely eliminate politicians who just want to take advantage of the system. Yes,” Rafizi concluded.