DECEMBER 17 — The Registrar of Societies’ (ROS) rebuke of The Malaysian Indian Congress’s (MIC) stating that the party election is null and void shows that many things are problematic under the current leadership. There are immediate efforts to change the situation, to rectify it but many of us fear it is just a try to hide everything a very messy situation in the
It is an open secret that there are fierce rivalries in the party and competition for economic power using the Indian card inside the Barisan Nasional (BN). Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak should be very concerned about these developments and should intercede so that there is less damage to the coalition and reduce risk of losing Indian votes.
This mess is from the badly run election which president G.Palanivel was the returning officer since there was no contest for president and deputy president. And now they are trying to conceal any errors that have occurred, but they are too late, the ROS has already spotted them. They have to be serious errors because the whole election of three vice-presidents and Central Working Committee (CWC) has been ruled illegal.
I want the prime minister to look at both the shenanigans inside MIC and also the business empire that some of these characters in MIC are utilising to keep themselves in power and not help the millions of simple Indians across the country. They are not being served by the politicians they are backing and giving all their hopes to. They are being used by these politicians to get themselves the grand lives they want, not what the simple Indians need.
That they are using their political office in BN to get contracts and not better rights for Indians.
There are more than whispers about the financial mismanagement connected to the Little India Brickfields development projects and in Negeri Sembilan’s Ulu Timiang. There are delays, payments being defaulted and unimpressive results from the projects. Look at the Pines Bazaar in Brickfields, which is under firms linked to MIC companies, and then compare it to the new U Sentral. The former is just another shoplot which is empty now, no better than what it replaced and maybe even worse. Then look at the NU Sentral down the road. Is this supposed to show the difference between Indians in Malaysia and the rest of other Malaysians?
I wonder if the ex-deputy minister for Federal Territories M. Saravanan has any clarifications to make on why these things happened when he was in that ministry, which is in charge of that development in Brickfields.
And there all kinds of problems with the construction of the Malaysian High Commission in New Delhi, which is also, a project linked to MIC.
The list goes on and on.
While the discussion about MIC never ends in the Tamil papers, they are rare in the mainstream papers and that is because no attention is really paid to Indian issues. With this new debacle, I really want the media to shed some light on the whole picture at MIC.
Because there will be allegations of voting mistakes, payouts and compromised election workers, all due to money politics. It is those linked to the development projects who are in a position to execute money politics inside MIC.
This is not an issue only limited to Indians because BN is really counting on Indian votes to stay ahead of Pakatan Rakyat in the country. For the sake of the country, I hope the prime minister will do something sooner, perhaps some kind of investigation into the party and its connected finances so that the Indians in Malaysia can know the truth.
The Indians in the country was in the prime minister’s thinking when he helped former president Dato’ Seri Samy Vellu to resign some years ago, it is time he does something about the shenanigans inside the party. I ask not only as an Indian, but as a Malaysian.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
