MIC 'defeated' in Hulu Selangor

By FMT Staff

COMMENT P Kamalanathan is the compromise candidate for the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat, and while certain quarters describe this as a “win-win” situation, the reality however is a bitter pill for MIC.

To put it bluntly, MIC has been dealt a slap, leaving its leaders red-faced with embarrassment.

The Barisan Nasional leadership, or rather the coalition's big brother Umno, has rejected MIC president S Samy Vellu's first choice, none other than his deputy G Palanivel.

Now Samy Vellu has to swallow his pride and back Kamalanathan, setting aside the fact that it is Umno, and not MIC, which delivered the final verdict.

He would have to rally his demoralised soldiers on the ground to swing into action, after days of confusion as to who would be the candidate.

To make matters worse, if Kamalanathan wins, the MIC president would have nothing to gloat about, since it would be evident that it was the Umno gamble which paid off.

Samy Vellu would also have to convince Palanivel's supporters, who are seething with anger, that their leader had been led by the nose ring to the slaughter house.

It is an open secret that Palanivel wanted to contest in this by-election in order to pave the way for his return to Parliament, and possibly back into the Cabinet.

He was never keen on using the rear door to access the corridors of power, something which DAP leader Lim Kit Siang never fails to remind Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon of.

Palanivel has always attributed his razor-thin defeat in the last general election to external forces, namely former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo's infamous “broom gift”, rather than a decline in support for him.

To his credit, Hulu Selangor witnessed almost 1,500 spoilt votes wheras the majority was a mere 198 votes in the 2008 general election.

Man of pride

Palanivel, who was a four-term Hulu Selangor MP, is known to be a man of pride and would find this humiliation difficult to swallow.

Talk is that he has been offered a senatorship, which would probably see him appointed as a deputy minister. The question is, would he accept it?

For now, Palanivel is still licking his wounds.

Sources also claim that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak wants to prove that he could win Indian votes without Samy Vellu's MIC.

It is common knowledge that Najib views the veteran politician's continued presence at the helm as a major stumbling block in capturing the hearts and minds of the Indian community.

In view of this, the premier has on numerous occasions, sidestepped Samy Vellu and MIC, when reaching out to Indian voters.

National politics aside, the decision to drop Palanivel would also have a significant impact on MIC, with members wondering what good is a deputy president with no clout.

On the same note, what good is a president who cannot convince the BN leadership to field the party's candidate, eventually submitting to the will of Umno?

In the final analysis, a victory for Kamalanathan would be a defeat for MIC.