Bahaya kaki ampu di sekeliling Presiden MIC — Paul Mutusamy

July 13, 2010

13 JULAI — Perhimpinunan Agung MIC Ke-64 yang “menumpang” di Dewan Merdeka, Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra pada Sabtu dan Ahad lalu tidaklah menarik untuk dibincangkan. Tiada apa tindakan dan resolusi yang memberangsangkan.

Balik-balik cerita tentang kepimpinan MIC yang banyak jasa. Mereka tidak banyak berbincang kaedah untuk menarik pengundi India menyokong MIC dan Barisan Nasional (BN).

Ingatlah pesanan Pengerusi BN, Datuk Seri Najib Razak supaya MIC segera melakukan perubahan bagi mengelakkan ia ditolak sepenuhnya oleh komuniti India dan akhirnya musnah dalam sistem politik negara.

Gesaan itu perlu diberi perhatian serius kerana masalah dalaman MIC sehingga kini masih wujud dan boleh merosakkan masa depan parti itu.

Antara perubahan yang perlu dilakukan ialah memastikan MIC kembali menjadi parti pembela rakyat dan bukannya sebagai medan untuk melebarkan pengaruh atau kuasa politik bagi pihak-pihak tertentu. Tetapi apa yang banyak dibahaskan oleh perwakilan lebih kepada unsur mengampu.

Ada pula perwakilan MIC yang kaki ampu meminta presidennya supaya memegang jawatan tertinggi parti itu untuk 100 tahun lagi.

Kalau hendak mengampu biarlah berdasarkan realiti. Kalau dikatakan pemimpin MIC itu mempunyai kredibiliti tinggi, masakan undi masyarakat India sudah beralih arah kepada pemimpin India dari parti pembangkang seperti DAP dan PKR.

Hal ini masih belum banyak berubah. Kalau sokongan masyarakat India kepada BN dikatakan sudah kembali, itu pun bukan dengan usaha pemimpin MIC sebaliknya atas daya usaha Perdana Menteri sendiri dan pemimpin Barisan Nasional yang lain.

Jadi janganlah pemimpin-peminpin MIC cepat membuat rumusan tentang kejayaan mereka.

Saya bimbang, golongan kaki ampu yang berada di sekeliling Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu boleh memudaratkan Presiden MIC itu sendiri.

Dua bulan lalu, Samy Vellu mengumumkan pelan perletakan jawatannya yang mungkin berlangsung pada akhir tahun depan. Tetapi cadangan itu mendapat bantahan daripada ahli-ahli MIC dan pelbagai pihak.

Malah melalui komen-komen mengampu di Perhimpunan Agung MIC itu dibimbangi Presiden MIC yang sudah 31 tahun memimpin MIC akan berubah fikiran.

Kalau Samy Vellu membatalkan janjinya sendiri, bermakna MIC tak akan ke mana-mana. Bukan Samy Vellu tidak bagus, tetapi jika terlalu lama dalam tampuk pimpinan, maka barisan pelapis pun jadi tua dan tiada idea untuk kemajuan kaum India.

Kalau hanya perwakilan mempunyai kuasa memastikan presiden meletakkan jawatan, maka biarkanlah MIC dengan haluannya. Masyarakat India akan melihat orang MIC memang tidak boleh ditegur dan dinasihat. Mereka fikir dengan kuasa yang ada sebagai perwakilan MIC boleh menentukan siapa yang mempunyai kuasa di negara ini. Dan tiada sesiapa berhak menggesa presiden partinya meletakkan jawatan.

Jika demikian, biarkanlah Samy Vellu dan penyokongnya. Jangan sesiapa pun memaksa beliau berhenti. Tidak perlulah MIC sibuk-sibuk menilai diri.

Sebagai rakyat Malaysia berketurunan India, saya malu apabila orang MIC suka menyalahkan orang lain atas kelemahan parti mereka.

Kenapa menyalahkan Presiden Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia (Perkasa), Datuk Ibrahim Ali sebagai punca utama masalah antara kaum di negara ini.

Perkasa mengeluarkan kenyataan-kenyataan yang dianggap melampau sehingga menimbulkan kemarahan di kalangan masyarakat India dan Cina di negara ini kerana mereka mahu pertahankan hak yang terkandung dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan.

Pada saya kalau pemimpin MIC bijak dalam menjalin kerjasama dengan Perkasa atau NGO Melayu yang lain, tidak timbul perbalahan di kalangan masyarakat Malaysia.

Begitu juga kenapa perwakilan MIC tiba-tiba mengutuk akhbar Utusan Malaysia dengan mendakwa menjadi pencetus masalah masyarakat India di negara ini. Masalah kaum India berpunca daripada mereka sendiri yang mungkin diabaikan oleh pemimpin MIC juga.

Hakikatnya perwakilan MIC terlalu emosional. Mereka bagaikan tidak tahu menari tapi mahu menyalahkan lantai yang tidak rata.

Belajarlah daripada kejatuhan Parti Kongres India, yang kemudian bangkit untuk menarik minat rakyat semula. MIC boleh melakukan kebangkitan dengan syarat berani berubah dan melaksanakan perubahan.

Ada beberapa bulan lagi sebelum Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13, mungkin MIC dapat menunjukkan sesuatu dan bukan sekadar slogan dan retorik semata-mata. — Utusan Malaysia

When You Gotta Go...

by Kee Thuan Chye

THIS weekend, at the MIC’s annual general assembly, will Samy Vellu give in to the mounting pressure for him to quit as party president immediately or will he carry on regardless? Can we expect fireworks that might climax in an earth-shaking announcement from him or will it be business as usual? Chances are Samy will not budge from his position. He has declared that he will not see through the rest of his term as president, which ends in May 2012, and will instead step down in September 2011. But the voices calling for him to depart earlier are getting louder, especially after he used his powers to expel four party leaders for ostensibly urging him to quit. Even S. Murugessan was removed as secretary-general for speaking out against the expulsion. It is Samy’s intolerance of dissent that has made him less than endearing even to some of his own party members. His other major downside is that he has been president for far too long – 31 years is practically half the time the 64-year-old party has been in existence. Significant events over the last three years have shown up his declining worth as a national leader and as that of a party claiming to represent his ethnic community. First, the Hindraf rally in 2007 dealt a severe blow to the relevance of the MIC to the Indians, for which Samy must shoulder the bulk of the responsibility. Then at the March 8, 2008, general election, he lost his self-proclaimed “fortress”, the parliamentary seat of Sungai Siput, conquered by the humble Michael Jeyakumar. Last April, for the Hulu Selangor by-election, his choice of candidate was rejected by the Barisan Nasional leadership. He wanted his deputy, G. Palanivel, to stand, but Prime Minister and BN chairman Najib Razak and his Umno colleagues had other ideas. The word going round then was that they preferred MIC Deputy Youth Chief V. Mugilan whom Samy opposed. In the end, a compromise was made and P. Kamalanathan got the job. Nonetheless, Samy lost face. How could he henceforth stand up for his party within the coalition, and effectively represent his community? And then, before he could recover from it, his detractors let out GAS. Mugilan, one of the four expelled by Samy “for working against the MIC and BN”, organised a campaign called Gerakan Anti-Samy (GAS) to pressure him to quit. If nothing else, it has caused untold embarrassment to Samy. On top of that, they are demanding that he step down on July 10, the first day of the general assembly. They have threatened that if he fails to do so, they would expose the details of scandals that have been plaguing the party and the wrongs that Samy has allegedly committed. No other prominent national leader has had to suffer such ignominy. Samy should have left while the going was still good. Like Mahathir Mohamad, whom he avowedly reveres despite the former PM’s exhortation to him to step down earlier. Like Ling Liong Sik of the MCA. Like Lim Keng Yaik of Gerakan. They, too, might have also been pressured to go, but the good thing for them is, they did. Now it might be too late for Samy to make an honourable exit. He won’t be able to salvage any pride. The response to it among detractors and even neutrals would be one of relief, certainly not sympathy or respect. And in future, history would still record that he long overstayed his tenure. It should be interesting to see what Najib, who is opening the MIC general assembly on July 10, will say in his address to the MIC delegates, and how telling his body language will be when he relates to Samy. Najib has been long enough in the business to know that politicians have their sell-by date and he can recognise one that’s gone way beyond that. Going by his expression of admiration a few days ago for the German team in the World Cup tournament, a team that invested faith in young people with talent and team spirit, one could infer that he would prefer a new, perhaps even younger, MIC president. Perhaps someone like S. Subramaniam who made a meteoric rise to become Human Resource Minister when his party seniors lost their seats on March 8, 2008. Interestingly, those who have been pushing for Samy to go have not talked about what should happen afterwards, like who would succeed him and what plans the successor would have for re-energising the party to win back voter support. Although Samy has recently announced that Palanivel will be the one to succeed him, it may not turn out to be as clear-cut as that. With talk already rife that Mugilan is being sponsored by outside forces, which Samy’s son, Vell Paari, has publicly identified as Umno, who’s to say that Najib and Umno might not want to get into the act again and influence the succession outcome? Why would they not intervene when this may be crucial to BN’s performance at the next general election? July 10 will be an interesting day, indeed. Political pundits watching for signs may indeed spot a few. Mugilan can still hope to bring Samy down if one of the delegates calls for an EGM to vote on a motion of no-confidence against Samy. But who will be brave enough to bell the cat? Who will risk being sacked from the party if the subsequent vote favours Samy? At the end of the day, if no one makes a move, Samy will remain as he is. And the bravado he displayed when he said this last Sunday will continue to pique his antagonists: “No one can do anything to me or the party. And if anyone tries to destroy the party, fate will ensure that they themselves are destroyed.” Some might call that chutzpah; others call it hubris.

Samy Vellu’s long goodbye starts this weekend

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — The MIC’s 64th AGM starts tomorrow with the party at a major crossroads — still led by defiant but discredited president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and unsure how to win back Indian support.

In the 2008 general election that followed the 2007 Hindraf protest, the party lost massively on the back of voter rejection, not just by Indians but also Malays and Chinese, who saw Samy Vellu and the party as fossilised organisms living in the past.While Indian voter support is gradually returning, the trend is more for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak personally and an endorsement of his outreach programmes than for Barisan Nasional (BN), the MIC or for Samy Vellu, who along with his son Vell Paari, are simply hated figures.The big question for the 3,000 delegates tomorrow is, when will Samy Vellu step down? And where is the party heading to after that?Can his successor unite the party, give direction and perform in the 13th general election that is rushing up? Will the party break up and disappear from the political scene?Samy Vellu has come under severe pressure to give a firm date to step down.The September 2011 date he announced three months ago is unacceptable because the MIC, with Samy Vellu out of the way, needs ample time to revamp and offer the community a new hope under a new leader.What programmes the new leader offers and how these are received will go a long way to decide the MIC’s future.Samy Vellu, said his closes allies, is beginning to wind up in preparation for an early exit that can come as early as January 2011.“He is telling his closest allies and long time friends that he can’t continue any longer, that the pressure is too great on him and that they should all prepare for a day soon without his support,” a top retired MIC leader told The Malaysian Insider.“He used to play it close to his chest but now he is telling us about his plans,” he said. “We expect him to make an announcement on his plans at the AGM on Saturday.”“He will say he is leaving soon but is not likely to give a firm date,” the leader said but adding January 2011 is the final date. “He can’t go on after that, the country’s political situation will not allow it.”Sources told The Malaysian Insider, that deputy president Datuk G Palanivel, with the assistance of the government and its agencies, has a plan in place to start the revamp of the party soon after Samy Vellu steps down.

Najib is willing to consider any request for assistance by a MIC under a new leadership and has already made good on his promises to assist the Indian community in various ways with his direct cash and other assistance to Sri Murugan Centre, the community’s highly appreciated social reform movement through education.He has provided a special unit trust investment scheme although it remains under-subscribed for want of cash to subscribe. He has given money for Tamil schools improvement and offered more scholarships.He has set up a Cabinet committee on the Indian community, chaired by him, to oversee implementation.All these assistance is by-passing the MIC and making it increasingly an irrelevant organisation.But it would end the moment Samy Vellu is out of the way, the sources said. “Without him the MIC will be once more be partners with Najib.”Under the circumstances, Samy Vellu’s best option is to get what he can get through negotiations for his retirement, step down and keep out of the way.With the Gerakan Anti Samy Vellu or GAS not letting up on their mission to constantly harass Samy Vellu out, the days are numbered for the veteran who became president in 1979 on the sudden death of then incumbent Tan Sri V. Manicavasagam.“We are not going to let up but continue demanding for him to step down. We want an inquiry into the millions in losses suffered by MIED and Maika Holdings,” said GAS founder V. Mugilan, the former MIC deputy Youth chief.While some veteran Samy Vellu sycophants are arguing against pressuring Samy Vellu to step down, the younger generation is all for a new leader at the helm.

“The MIC is full of leaders over 60 years old. It is a tired, spent party for old men and led by an old man who would soon need a stick to stand,” said Mugilan. “How will the MIC ever attract the younger generation.”Samy Vellu told the Wanita wing at their AGM last week that it was his last time addressing them, which many take as a cue that this AGM is the final curtain for Samy Vellu.Said a Wanita leader, Samy Vellu is expected to exit in January 2011 and use the Pravasi Indian Diaspora meet in India in January as the forum to take leave of Tamils on the world stage for he had in better times, imagined himself as a world Tamil leader. It is very likely that Saturday’s AGM, to be opened by Najib, will be Samy Vellu’s very last.And he would be leaving as a disgraced leader — with Maika Holdings in shambles and his brainchild MIED suing him and his crony directors for RM100 million.Unloved and unwanted, the Indian community will be happy to see the last of Samy Vellu.

MIC supporters disrupt Klang anti-Samy Vellu rally (Updated)

By EDWARD R. HENRY

KLANG: MIC members and supporters gate-crashed the second anti-Samy Vellu rally here Sunday and brought it to an early end.

Former Taman Maznah MIC chairman S. Chandran and former Klang division chairman K. Tharmalingam headed the group of about 50 people, who became embroiled in heated debates with those attending the rally, resulting in minor scuffles outside and in the hall.

The group, claiming to be loyal to party chief Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, had gathered at the venue even before the event was scheduled to start at 1pm.

"Don't ever utter a word about MIC. You must not mention Samy Vellu's name. Get out of this hall as you have no place here," Chandran told rally supporters, before barging into the hall around 2pm.

Gerakan Anti-Samy Vellu (GAS) leaders V. Mugilan and G. Kumar Aamaan, together with rally organiser K.P. Samy, a former MIC central working committee member who was sacked earlier, clashed verbally with the hostile group inside the hall.

The shouting between the two groups grew louder as Chandran challenged the organisers, with minor scuffles erupting near the stage.

In an attempted to cool tempers, Aamaan held up a book, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fisher, and began to chant "Ahimsa" (which means non-violence in Sanskrit) and people in the hall followed suit.

Policemen entered the hall around 2.10pm to keep the situation from getting out of control.

The organisers ended the gathering of 1,500 at 3pm, two hours earlier than scheduled, on the advice of the Klang police chief.

Samy called for press conference on the stage and handed out a four-page memorandum to the press.

"We are unable to hold a peaceful gathering as Samy Vellu sent his gangsters to wreak havoc. All we wanted to do was chart out the future of the Indians in this nation and get their support, which would be handed to the Prime Minister," he said.

The four-page memorandum contained nine issues, including calling for the government to lower the schooling age to five, reduce personal tax, establish kindergartens within existing Tamil schools, rehabilitate prisoners and redefine poverty.

Mugilan also called for Samy Vellu to step down.

Samy Vellu announced earlier that he would step down in 2012 and not on July 10, as demanded by his critics.

Klang Police Chief Asst Comm Muhammad Mat Yusop said 60 policemen, together with the light strike force, were deployed to keep the situation in control.

In Klang, the only loser was Samy Vellu

KLANG, July 4 — MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, with the Barisan Nasional (BN) political establishment behind him, has never lost a fight.

But at the Dewan Hamzah in Klang today his streak ended.

He lost a crucial battle with about 1,000 ordinary people who had gathered at the hall to denounce him despite concerted attempts to disrupt and end the proceeding by his supporters who gate-crashed the event.

About 30 supporters held the gathering to ransom.

The organizers, the three leaders of Gerakan Anti Samy Vellu or GAS – K.P.Samy, V. Mugilan and Kumar Amman - and several other expelled MIC members braved the heckling, harassment and disruption by Samy’s supporters.

But they held on until police arrived to cheers from the audience.

For nearly an hour, from 2pm, the organizers battled with them, with not a single policemen present, except for plainclothes Special Branch detectives who did not interfere to stop the disruption.

Only after people in the audience raised their voices and demanded, “where are the police?” did a dozen uniformed police arrive and stop the disruption.

Samy Vellu lost whatever little respect he still enjoys with the Indian community as one after another in the audience cursed his name.

The gatecrashers, led by well known MIC characters like MIC divisional leader Taman Maznah Chandran and incumbent MIC Youth leader Siva Subramaniam and others of their ilk, continued to argue with police and demanded that not a word was mentioned of Samy Vellu and MIC.

Urged by the police GAS leaders gave short speeches not mentioning Samy Vellu along with former Hindraf leaders Ganapathi Rao, now in DAP, and independent activist P. Gengadharan.

However, Mugilan in his five-minute speech, heckled by the Samy Vellu supporters, gave a fiery speech urging the people to rise up against Samy Vellu.

The meeting ended on that note with the people leaving satisfied that although the group sought to disrupt their gathering they had prevailed and had urged Samy Vellu to step down.

“I am happy that despite so much disruption we managed to shout “Down with Samy!”,” said S. Vellu Samy from Negri Sembilan.

”We won, Samy Vellu lost…he is not fit to lead us any more after this show of gangsterism,” he said.

In Klang today, Samy Vellu’s mask fell and he lost terribly.

Staying as party president and claiming to be leader of the Indian community is simply untenable.

Not a day longer was the message those in Dewan Hamzah sent out to the man who has been president since 1979.

However, the day was not without its irony.

Among those who urged the goons to disappear was Bharat Maniam, the expelled Petaling Jaya MIC division chairman who was the muscle Samy Vellu had used to strike terror among supporters of former expelled vice-president Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan.

Kumar Amman, the sacked MIC CWC member and a leader of GAS, had only months ago attacked an aide to Penang Deputy Chief Minister Dr P. Ramasamy as part of a MIC Youth demonstration against the DAP.

Today, he was carrying a book about Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi and shouting “Ahimsa! Ahimsa!” as goons threatened to assault them.

“Yes, I assaulted him but that is a different Kumar Amman…that Kumar Amman no longer exists,” said Kumar Amman.

Ganapathi Rao, a DAP member, said in his short speech that there is nothing wrong in Indians of all persuasions to come together for the good of the community while Gengadharan told The Malaysian Insider he was politically independent.

K.P.Samy, who had dreams of joining Pakatan Rakyat, ended his speech condemning the gatecrashers as “street animals and paid goons” and ended his speech, startling the audience with three shouts of, Long Live Najib!

The only loser was Samy Vellu.

GAS II stormed by Samy Vellu’s men

KLANG, July 4 — Chaos erupted at the Gerakan Anti-Samy Vellu gathering here when the event was rudely interrupted by about 50 people, believed to be supporters of the party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu.

The group turned up before the event was scheduled to begin at about 1pm and began discouraging people from entering Dewan Dato Hamzah, where the gathering was being held.

Just before 2pm, a shouting match ensued outside the hall between the two factions and a minor scuffle followed when several men, engaged in a heated debate, began to shove each other around.

At 2pm, the rowdy group of Samy Vellu supporters pushed their way into the hall, shouting at the top of their lungs.

They are believed to be led by three key men — Selangor MIC information chief L. Siva Subramaniam, and two branch chairmen, one known as “Taman Maznah” Chandran, and another as Dharmalingam, a former Klang MIC division chief who currently sits as a director in the Port Klang Authority, an appointment made by Samy Vellu himself.

“Don’t you dare speak of MIC. Don’t you dare utter Samy Vellu’s name. Get out of this hall, stop this gathering,” they shouted as they made their way to the stage.

When they clashed with the organisers and supporters of the GAS gathering, another shouting match broke out.

More pushing and shoving were witnessed as the fight heated up quickly.

GAS supporters, led by sacked leaders V. Mugilan, K. P. Samy, G. Kumar Aamaan, former Petaling Jaya Barat MIC chief V. Subramaniam or “Bharat Maniam”, began yelling at the group to get out.

At one point, Samy, together with Kumar Aamaan, who was holding up a book called “The Life of Mahatma Ghandi”, began shouting “Ahimsa” which means a peaceful leadership style.

The chants grew louder as the GAS supporters who had begun piling into the hall, swelled to about 1,000 people.

Chandran, who was one of the most vocal of the group, then yelled at Samy, claiming that the latter had not done a single thing for the Indian community.

“If you had won in the elections and became an MP, would you still be here now? You have not given 5sen to the community,” he said.

Ignoring him, Samy then called the media up onstage for a press conference.

“We are not here to start trouble. This is a peaceful gathering but this is Samy Vellu’s style... he called in his gangsters,” he said.

He noted that they were willing to stop the gathering if the group of troublemakers insisted on causing havoc.

“We are all law-abiding citizens, we do not want violence. We will listen to the advice of the police,” he said.

Samy also called upon the Prime Minister to take note of Samy Vellu’s gangster-like leadership.

“He should act against these hooligans. They are the liabilities of the Barisan Nasional.

“We, on the other hand, just want peace. We want to submit our memorandum to the PM and call for an early retirement for Samy Vellu,” he said.

He also challenged Samy Vellu to declare publicly that Aimst University and MIED belonged to the Indian community and had not been “hijacked” by him.

“We will meet with the PM soon on this and on the Maika issue. There are over 60,000 shareholders, now only the PM can help,” he said.

Mugilan agreed that Samy Vellu was practising “gangster-style” politics and would be the BN’s greatest stumbling block in the next general election.

“This is how he controls the Indian community — with his gangsters.

“We do not pay our supporters to come but yet, they turn up in droves.

“So long as Samy Vellu is MIC president, the Indians will not support the BN. He is just a senile man,” he said.

At about 2.15pm, a group of policemen walked into the hall after they were informed that there were troublemakers attempting to disrupt the event.

The police spoke to the group of Samy Vellu supporters for several minutes before informing the GAS organisers that they could proceed with their event.

They however noted that the rowdy group would be allowed to stay in the hall for they had refused to leave.

When the shouting continued, however, at least half of the rowdy group were ushered out of the hall.

The three main leaders in the group of Samy Vellu’s supporters remained behind with a few of their men flanking them.

The event continued with a few speeches from the organisers but was continuously disrupted by insults thrown at them.

The din in the hall was too loud to hear what the sacked leaders were saying.

Despite this, GAS supporters cheered on cue at every punchline.

The tension in the air was almost palpable but the police kept a watchful eye on the crowd and was quick to lead away those who became too rowdy with their words.

At about 3.10pm, the function was declared over. No untoward incidences were reported.

When approached, Mugilan told The Malaysian Insider that GAS II had been successful due to the large turnout.

“We will keep fighting. We will keep coming up with more ideas and make sure Samy Vellu steps down as president soon,” he said.

He acknowledged that the MIC president had received a strong show of support from the party’s Youth, Wanita, Putera and Puteri wings during the launch of their annual general meeting earlier but insisted that this was because of their fear of Samy Vellu.

“He is a dictator. All who oppose him get sacked. They are afraid of him.

“I received many SMSes from our supporters who were in the AGMs just now and told me what happened,” he said.

Mugilan would not commit to a third GAS gathering but gave his assurance that the GAS efforts would continue.

All four GAS leaders were summarily expelled from the party when they dared to speak out against Samy Vellu, who has ruled the MIC for 31 years now.

The former Works Minister had announced recently that he would only step down by September next year, ahead of his term of expiration in May 2012, but this did not sit well with many party leaders who had wanted him to leave during the party’s AGM this July 10.