GEORGE TOWN, Dec 22 — Denial won’t save MIC at the next general elections, its deputy president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said today following the protracted in-fighting plaguing the Barisan Nasional component party.

He urged his party leadership to knuckle down and take pro-active measures to tackle the internal problems.

“It is time for the party to find solutions to resolve the constant internal bickering so that we could start strengthening the party for the next general election,” Dr Subramaniam who is also health minister told reporters during his working visit to the Penang Hospital here.

He said the constant infighting and feuds between groups within the party will only serve to weaken the party further making it ill-prepared for the next general election expected to be held in 2018.

“We have been weakened in the last two elections in 2008 and 2013 so if we don’t pull ourselves together, we will face an ever bigger problem by 2018,” he said.

Dr Subramaniam claimed he had expressed his views in reconciling warring groups within the party to the party Central Working Committee.

“I’ve been asking the CWC to find holistic solutions to resolve these internal problems including getting all the feuding groups together to resolve their differing views in a way accepted by all parties,” he said, using the abbreviation for his party’s top leadership council, the central working committee.

He added that he had also reminded the party leadership that they needed to first acknowledge the issues and the unhappiness of the members so that everyone could sit down to resolve it amicably.

The Segamat MP was responding to a statement by party president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel yesterday who had termed the protests at the party headquarters last week as just a “minor group of troublemakers”.

Dr Subramanian reminded Palanivel that it is no longer “minor” if the disgruntled party members had gotten the Registrar of Societies (RoS) involved.

“It is no longer a small insignificant issue if party members had written to RoS and the RoS had also responded by asking the party to hold fresh elections,” he pointed out.

He urged all party leaders in the CWC to wake up and find solutions to the internal issues before it is too late.

Earlier this month, the RoS nullified the party elections where its three vice-presidents and 23 CWC posts were elected during the MIC general assembly.

The RoS had recommended that MIC hold fresh elections due to the breaches in the party’s constitution and the Societies Act.