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.