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.
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