MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu basked in the glow of victory today, looking on appreciatively as one delegate after another attacked the government and former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for interfering in MIC matters.
The delegates at the MIC general assembly singled out for criticisms Mahathir and other leaders for condemning Samy Vellu and praising his rival Datuk S. Subramaniam, in the run up to yesterday’s election.
A day earlier, Samy Vellu-backed candidates all but swept the board, taking the lion’s share of posts contested, and cemented his grip on the party, despite some pressure from Umno and the public for some change in MIC.
Mahathir was criticised severely for doing nothing for the Indian community while the Umno/Barisan Nasional (BN) government was attacked for favouring only the Malays and ignoring the woes of the Indians for many years.
The depth of the criticism, sometimes tedious, was best illustrated after one delegate from Johore stood up and said: “They can see the woes of the Palestinians and the Bosnians but they can’t see our suffering right here before their eyes.”
“For them to tell us who to pick as our leaders is an insult,” he said.
While they attacked the “government” and Tun Mahathir, they held back on criticizing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who had them on their feet yesterday in a stirring speech urging them to reform to win back Indian support.
He issued a warning, seen as being directed at Samy Vellu, that being popular in the party was useless if the people you claim to represent hate you.
But Samy Vellu appeared to shrug off the advice, seeing it as interference in MIC affairs.
He has also allowed delegates to speak up against a government, of which he was minister for nearly 30 years, and in which his party is still represented by a minister and two deputy ministers.
“The die is cast…he is on a collision course with the government…Umno,” said a newly elected MIC leader on the sidelines of the MIC general assembly today.
“We are either in Barisan or out. We cannot be in the tent and attack our own,” he said, adding that in his desire to continue as MIC president, Samy Vellu, was now on a collision course with the federal government.
“It is the classic disease of individuals in power for one too many years,” said the MIC leader. “He believes without him the MIC would collapse and without him he Indian community would suffer.”
“The community that the MIC had represented has long fled to the opposition and the party is just a shell of what it once was but the Samy Vellu party and same script goes on,” he said.
The Najib administration is going the extra-mile to woo the Indian community, aware that the government had alienated them and that the level of frustration is deep.
But it needs a vehicle to take forward the transformation, and was hoping the MIC could reform, elect a new leadership and be the harbinger of a “new deal” for the Indians.
With Samy Vellu still around, there is little choice for Umno/BN but to support other stakeholders in the community and gradually start making a direct approach to Indian voters.
Baradhan Kuppusamy
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