Samy's shocker: 50,000 Malays, Chinese in MIC

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MIC's veteran president S Samy Vellu

There were puzzled looks all around during the MIC central working committee meeting yesterday when party president S Samy Vellu made a startling revelation. The veteran politician, who has been helming the party since 1979, said that the Indian-based MIC has 50,000 Malay and Chinese members.

Contacted today, a CWC member, who wished to remain anomymous, confirmed that the president had disclosed this during the closed-door meeting at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

“Yes, it's right. But Samy Vellu also explained that the party did not recruit non-Indian members deliberately,” he told FMT.

According to him, the president said that when branch verification exercises are carried out, the branch chairpersons submit the voters' list to show their number of members.

“The names on the voters' list are Indian names, but when a check was conducted on the Identity Card numbers, it was discovered that the persons are either Malay or Chinese,” he added.

The CWC member said this prompted former vice-president KS Nijhar to ask the president on the actual number of MIC members.

Following this, party treasurer Jaspal Singh quoted the MIC annual report, which stated that RM615, 550 has been collected in membership fee. Based on these figures, Jaspal said the party has 410,000 members.

This is in stark contradiction with Samy Vellu's earlier claim that the Barisan Nasional component party has more than 600,000 members.

Meanwhile, a party insider disputed the 410,000 membership figure as well and called on Samy Vellu to come clean on this issue.

Mobile phones switched off

In another development, Samy Vellu shot down a question on the party's nominees for directorship in goverment-linked companies.

Responding to a CWC member who raised the issue, the president said: “There is no reason for me to tell you this. This is between me and the minister concerned.”

There is talk that some CWC members are unhappy with certain appointments made by Samy Vellu with regards to GLCs.

The president also refused to comment on former vice-president S Sothinathan's possible appointment as a director of MIC's education arm, Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED).

Ties between Sothinanthan and his mentor had soured when the former decided to contest for deputy presidency in last year's party polls despite Samy Vellu advising him not to do so.

However, speculation is rife that the duo have buried the hatchet.

Yesterday's CWC meeting also witnessed another first when Samy Vellu instructed the members to switch off their mobile phones because he was worried that the proceedings would be recorded.