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Thaipusam will be a public holiday in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who announced this yesterday to more than 20,000 people from the Indian community at MIC’s Gathering with the Prime Minister at the Badminton Stadium in Cheras yesterday, said he had considered the request by the MIC to declare Thaipusam a public holiday.
“We discussed this matter. They said that during Thaipusam there would be traffic jams everywhere in Kuala Lumpur and it is difficult to get to work. So let it be a holiday,” he said to cheers from the crowd.
Thaipusam, which falls on Wednesday, is already a public holiday in Selangor, Penang, Perak, Negri Sembilan and Johor.
The crowd starting cheering and clapping even before he made the announcement. They cheered as soon as he first brought up the subject by relating how the Indian community at the Ponggal event in Bukit Bintang on Saturday night had reacted excitedly when he promised to consider their request.
When the crowd cheered, he said: “Why are you all cheering?” and the people replied: “Cuti! (Holiday).”
“But we must continue to work. When it is a holiday, we have a holiday. But when it is time to work, we must work hard. Promise this, promise this,” he said.
MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu thanked Abdullah for the public holiday in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
“The Hindus in Malaysia have been waiting for a long time for such good news, and I hope they will not be disappointed,” he said.
He told reporters that although a national holiday had not been declared, the MIC was happy with the news.
He added that the party would forward its appeal for the event to be declared a public holiday in Kedah and Malacca to the states’ mentri besar and chief minister respectively.
Earlier in his speech at the gathering, Samy Vellu said the MIC had also brought up the Thaipusam holiday request with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique.
He added that MIC was confident the Indian voters would steadfastly remain with Barisan Nasional.
“Let us show to the country that the Indian community fully supports the Prime Minister. We will swim or sink with Barisan,” said Samy who called Abdullah “our leader and the leader for all Malaysians”.
Samy Vellu admitted that there were still many unresolved grievances within the Indian community.
“At the heart of the problem are many issues related to delivery and implementation by the civil service and local governments,” he said.
He took to task “certain political forces” trying to weaken Indian representation in the Government.
YennaMike Says : "Thanks to Hindraf for provoking this recently, finally something that has been on the table for decades was approved in a nick of time. Two things came to my mind again...one is to do with the Election and another to do with the Boycott...what do you think..??"
2 comments:
Declaring Public Holiday is not going to resolve problems thats faced by indian community currently. If PM can declare holiday, why can't he abolish ISA which is against human rights?
ISA is the only tool our goverment has to detain people who speak of truth, with Election around the corner BN can't afford to take the risk. The post mortem of Sunday's meeting conclusion was : 'We cannot really solve your problems, so we’ll give you a holiday...'
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