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Wednesday, 6 October 2010

GAS man Mugilan launches new NGO

By G Vinod - Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: The coordinator of the disbanded Gerakan Anti-Samy Vellu (GAS) has formed a new group called Malaysian Indian Visionary Association (MIVA) and will embark tomorrow on a membership drive. 

V Mugilan, who formed GAS after he was sacked from MIC, said he expected MIVA to register 100,000 members by the end of this year.

He said the membership drive would begin in Perak and last 10 days.

“I started my ground work to form this NGO in July, but could not launch it then as I was still involved in GAS,” he told FMT.

Mugilan dissolved GAS last Oct 1, after S Samy Vellu announced he would step down from the MIC presidency. GAS took credit for pressuring the longest serving party president to announce his departure.

He said MIVA would be apolitical.

“Any Indian who is 18 years of age or above is welcomed to join MIVA without any restrictions as the movement will only serve to empower the Indian community with information,” he said.

It would provide information from the government and the private sector on education and business opportunities, he added.

“The government and the private sector offer a lot of education and business opportunities to the Indian community," he said.

"However, the information does not seem to be reaching the grassroots. This is where we come in.

“We will work on two strategies to deliver the information. For the youths who are technology savvy, we will use media such as Twitter, Facebook and web portals. As for the senior generation, we will educate them on the opportunities using the Tamil newspapers.

“In addition, we will also educate the Indians on how to be successful in the Malaysian socio-economic scenario.”

Mugilan, who was MIC’s deputy youth chief before his sacking, said he expected the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to approve of  MIVA  in two weeks’ time.

He said he had been meeting Indian grassroots leaders since July and was confident that about 50,000 people were already interested in joining MIVA.

“Once I get the approval from ROS, the committee will work to register them immediately and get the numbers to reach the 100,000 mark by the end of December.”

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