MIC firmly against bid to usurp its role

(The Star) - KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC will not allow another Indian-based party to be admitted into Barisan Nasional, party Youth chief T. Mohan said.

“We won’t allow parties that mushroom today to usurp our role in the coalition.

“We have been bringing in the Indian support for Barisan all this while,” he told reporters after chairing an emergency meeting of the national MIC Youth Council here yesterday.

He said that the MIC was not the only party that suffered defeats in the last general election.

As such, it was not appropriate to blame the party alone for the losses suffered by Barisan, he said.

Mohan said the party had taken several measures to regain support from the Indian community.

“We know that Indians who voted for the Opposition are now slowly returning to the MIC,” he said.

Mohan said the wing would strongly oppose efforts by those having differences with the party leadership to destroy the 63-year-old MIC.

On the Makkal Sakthi party, he said Barisan leaders should really find out whether its members supported Barisan or not.

“As far as we know, the majority of them are supporters of the Opposition and this will not benefit Barisan,” he said.

However, he said because Malaysia was a democratic country, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had the right to officially launch Makkal Sakthi.

Mohan said Makkal Sakthi was a rallying call used by the banned Hindraf movement leaders in 2007 but certain people had used it for their own benefit.

He said Makkal Sakthi president R.S. Thanendran had collected several thousand ringgit to help the families of the five detained Hindraf leaders.

“We want him to show proof that the money was distributed to the five families or account for the monies collected from the public,” Mohan said