- Samy Vellu Asks Indians To Have More Children

He said the rate of growth of the Indian population was slower than that of the other communities.

"Many Indian couples do not have children. My advice to them is to have many children, or at least two children. However, the more the better. Otherwise, the percentage of Indians (in the population) will keep dropping," he told reporters after opening the MIC Kedah convention here on Friday.

Samy Vellu said that though the number of Indians registered as professionals had increased, from 9,909 in 2000 to 11,556 in 2005, the percentage comparatively had dropped, from 12 per cent in 2000 to 10.6 per cent in 2005.

In terms of equity ownership, the percentage had dropped from 1.5 per cent in 2000 to 1.2 per cent in 2005, he added.

Samy Vellu, who is Works Minister, said the MIC Education Bureau would also monitor the dwindling number of Indian professionals and draw up strategies to contain the drop.

One of the strategies was to ensure that the Indian community provided children with a strong education foundation in schools with emphasis on science and mathematics, apart from developing communicative skills in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Tamil, he said.

"Parents should monitor the education of their children and provide them with pre-school, primary and secondary education and ensure that they do not leave school at an early age," he said.

Samy Vellu said the MIC had created various opportunities for education and training by establishing a university and training institutions, including the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST) in Semeling, Kedah.

He said the government had set the target of three per cent equity ownership by Indians in 2020, and the Indian community should help the government achieve that objective by increasing their equity ownership.

-- BERNAMA