Samy Vellu's MIED claims could benefit Pakatan in Bagan Pinang vote

By Baradan Kuppusamy The Malaysian Insider

PORT DICKSON, Oct 4 — MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu may have given Pakatan Rakyat (PR) its best weapon yet to win over the 2,800 Indian voters in Bagan Pinang who are playing kingmakers in a tight contest.

An October 3 statement by Samy Vellu that there is no connection between MIC and MIED — which was always understood to be the MIC’s education arm — has shocked the Indian community and sparked a furore, with his political rivals and others all rising to condemn Samy Vellu.

The PR campaign has seized on the issue as campaign fodder against Umno, whose candidate in Bagan Pinang Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad is facing Negri Sembilan PAS chief Zulkefly Mohamad Omar in a straight fight.

The Indian votes are important because PAS had a majority of votes in all five saluran or voting streams in the constituency that had predominantly Indian voters like in Bradwell and Atherthon estates.

Umno won in all voting streams where Malay voters are in the majority — a situation that leaves Umno to woo Indian voters, who are still smarting from alleged marginalization and discrimination, if it wants to increase its winning majority.

There is a danger that more Indian votes could flee to PAS, if PR intelligently exploits the issue, because of the furore that has been sparked by Samy Vellu’s statement that MIED is independent of MIC.

The Indian public is outraged by the statement because huge amounts of cash were raised from the Indian poor for the MIC’s education efforts.

In addition the government gave millions of ringgit in cash for the building and management of the educational institutions that all came under the MIED umbrella.

Indian voters are somewhat taken up with the actions of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak since he became Prime Minister in April and the promises he has made to right the wrongs in good time.

But these warming up to Najib is at risk as realisation sets in that the Indian public has been, in the words of a former MIC vice-president, “taken for a ride” over the MIED matter.

The October 2 report which made the front pages of the Tamil newspapers quoted Samy Vellu as saying there were no links between MIED and AIMST University.

The report quoted Samy Vellu as saying: “Both — MIED and AIMST — are NGOs set up by me in my personal capacity when the (Tun Dr Mohamad) Mahathir government excluded the Indian community from the mainstream and MIC could not do anything about this.”

Just because I happened to be MIC president, it does not mean MIED and AIMST belong to MIC,” said Samy Vellu.

Samy Vellu said he would spend “all his time” with the NGOs including MIED and AIMST after he steps down as MIC president “before his term ends in 2012.”

The report said that he was expected to bring all the NGOs headed by him into a foundation headed by a board of trustees of prominent and international non-politicians including representatives among non-Indians.

Samy Vellu's chief rival Datuk S Subramaniam however accused him of telling lies by claiming there was no link between MIC and MIED, which is said to be worth RM1 billion.

“I am shocked at this blatant lie,” he said when contacted today. “He cannot bury the truth just like that. Don’t cheat the Indian community.”

“AIMST, MIED and MIC are all intractably linked,” Subramaniam said. “The MIC and Indian community are worried.”

MIED was started in 1989 and the first funds were raised with MIC members by selling lottery tickets.

The MIED report was always tabled at the MIC CWC meetings since 1980, said a MIC CWC member who declined to be named.

He added that MIED was always introduced as the “education arm” of the MIC.

MIC members were mobilised to support MIED, he said, adding that Samy Vellu negotiated with the government to get cash aid and land at premium by arguing MIED was part of MIC.

“For him to say the two are not related is a blatant lie,” he said.

Samy Vellu’s son Vel Paari has written in the Tamil Nesan today that MIED is separate from MIC because MIC is not allowed to own business entities.

“It is the same with other political parties,” he said accusing Subramaniam of making an issue out of something that was “clearly different” and not connected.

Subramaniam is expected to come out in the open fighting over the issue that is so emotive that Indian voters in Bagan Pinang, where Samy Vellu is campaigning, may be enraged.

Now that his feud with Umno over his retirement plans are well known, MIC leaders are wondering whether it is an accident that Samy Vellu has raised such an emotive issue just days before the by-election.