No entry... Secretary-general Kannan Ramasamy and CC member lawyer Takurdas Naraindas with deputy president A Vathemurthy (in the background) of Makkal Sakti, in a fix as they found out today their keys don't open the front door of the party's office in Shah Alam - Picture by Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19 — The central committee of the three-month-old Malaysia Makkal Sakti Party today gave notice to its president R.S. Thanenthiran to resign gracefully or face expulsion.
Fifteen of the 27-members of the committee were locked out of the party’s head office in Shah Alam but met under a makeshift tent outside and resolved to remove Thanenthiran because of his incompetence and failure to provide leadership, among other reasons.
Led by deputy president A Vathemurthy they also passed a vote of no confidence against the president.
The meeting also proved that the majority of CC members i.e. 56 per cent were behind Vathemurthy although Thanenthiran had claimed he had a majority.
If Thanenthiran refuses to resign in good time, the committee resolved, to convene an EGM within 90 days to remove Thanenthiran and install another person as president.
Vathemurthy also announced that he was not keen to be president but will support any other person other than Thanenthiran as president.
“The party needs to move ahead and take the next major step forward…I am not the man to lead the party to the next level,” he told the CC members.
The meeting was conducted in an orderly and democratic manner by CC lawyer Thakurdas Naraindas, who is also a CC member. Reporters and other observers were allowed to observe the meeting.
“We have nothing to hide,” said secretary general Kannan Ramasamy.
Earlier he and other leaders tried to enter the office but failed.
“They have changed the lock,” Kannan said.
“We will not break into our own office,” he said.
Thanenthiran could not be contacted but a CC member supporting him said their side will not accept the meeting today as valid.
“We reject their meeting and the decisions they made,” the supporter said. “We will carry on as usual without them. We might even expel all of them for tarnishing the party’s image.”
With Thanenthiran unwilling to comply, it appears the party is headed for a long drawn court battle defeating the purpose for which it was set up in the first place.
Police watched the proceedings from a distance and none of Thanenthiran’s supporters appeared to stop the meeting from proceeding.
The party was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Oct 10 in the hope that it could win over working class Tamils who had voted for the Pakatan Rakyat in the 2008 general election.
Kannan, as secretary general, had already “taken possession” of the party’s files, membership application forms and keys to the office but sometime late last night someone had changed the locks preventing them from entering the office.
The upcoming battle between the two factions is for the right to use the phrase Makkal Sakthi which was PR’s rallying cry in 2008.
The breakup of the party is a major embarrassment for Najib.
The MIC, which was worried a major contender had arrived for Tamil working class support, is delighted with the imminent break-up.
The CC meeting today was called by Kannan over the objections of Thanenthiran who had ordered Kannan to “postponement” it to January.
1 comment:
as before, now and in the future your kind can never be trusted or depended upon
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