KAJANG, MALAYSIA: Malaysian Indians should stop blaming others for their woes and start taking responsibility, said Petra Group chief executive officer Datuk Vinod Sekhar.

Speaking at a forum on the future of Indian youths here on Saturday, he said the first step was to see themselves as Malaysians and not Tamils, Telugu or Malayalees.

"We are Malaysians and we should not let anybody tell us otherwise," he added.

The forum was attended by about 600 middle-class youths and professionals including budding business people hungry for financial and other help to expand.

Vinod was speaking as a role model at the forum organised by TheMind (Malaysian Indian Educational Development Association).

Vinod, who is supporting TheMind with RM100,000 a year to network, establish self-help programmes and open up opportunities for Indian youths, urged Indians here to set up groups and seize opportunities as Malaysians and to not rely on Indian-only organisations and political parties for leadership.

"They should develop multiple leadership potential from within the community," he said, adding that the community should stop blaming and start asking what was holding it back.

"We've got to coalesce and look out for each other and build on it," he said to questions from the floor.

"Our political parties let us down, we let ourselves down.

"We have to help each other and help others, including the poor among Malays and Chinese," he said, adding that the idea was to start small at local levels and get as many individuals involved.