I commend malaysiakini for the several articles written on our Tamil language schools in our estates and rural areas. I believe that some of these facts are known and have been raised before in several forums and written about as well.

The fact that the situation remains unchanged does point to the failure of the government to take the appropriate steps to overcome the situation. Obviously if the government has relied on the MIC or MIC think tanks to come up with solutions, none has been offered or taken.

Do our communities in estates have to be members of MIC for anything to happen? If this is the case, I am sure many may already be members if they think or were informed that this is the way to their salvation from poverty or educational amenities for their children. Yet nothing much has changed.

I would make a plea for human rights groups and parliamentarians to work on setting up a commission on affairs of minorities. There should be a proper consultation with the communities themselves and concerned civil society groups including political parties as to the terms of reference of this commission and its time frame.

A white paper may not be useful as much information on the issue of our minority communities (including religious Muslim minorities like the Shiah) is already out there.

Perhaps groups already working with our minority communities including support groups of Orang Asli or Orang Asal could help get a discussion group going on the matter.