Samy moves to keep stranglehold on MIED

PETALING JAYA: In what is seen as an attempt by former MIC president S Samy Vellu to maintain a stranglehold on the cash-rich educational arm of the party, he has made a proposal to increase the membership of the board of directors to 42.

By wanting to place an additional 12 of his men in the 30-member board of Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED), Samy Vellu is setting up a showdown with current MIC chief G Palanivel.

Samy Vellu, the MIED chairman for the past 27 years, is expected to table the proposal for discussion at MIED’s AGM on March 7.

This latest development to shore up his position in MIED is being widely circulated via SMS, which is believed to have originated from KS Nijhar, one of MIED’s eight trustees.

The admission of new members into MIED must be deliberated and decided by the MIC central working committee.

Samy Vellu’s attempt to circumvent the MIC is certain to ruffle Palanivel’s feathers.

MIED was formed in 1984 by Samy Vellu to provide loans and scholarships for tertiary education to deserving students and its chairmanship is held by the party president.

Samy Vellu has yet to make way for Palanivel to take over MIED, and going by the latest development, he seems reluctant to do so, settting a collision course with Palanivel.

Currently, the MIED has eight trustees and 30 members on the board, two of whom are deceased.

The Registrar of Companies regulations stipulate that individuals, once they reached age of 70, have to relinquish their positions. Samy Vellu is 75 and most of the MIED trustees are in their 70s.

“He is planning to bring in an additional 12 new members so as to strengthen his hold on MIED as he needs 75% support to remain as the chairman,” said a source.

There are, according to the source, moves to get Samy Vellu out of MIED on March 7 by the current members. Plans are also afoot to also remove T Marimuthu, one the trustees, at the AGM.

Samy Vellu’s move to entrench himself in MIED will create problems for Palanivel. Money for needy students is disbursed by MIED upon request by the MIC whereas in the past the funds were approved by one and the same person, Samy Vellu,” the source said.

It also challenges the party’s ownership if new members are brought into the MIED without the greenlight of MIC’s central working committee.

Save MIED campaign

Meanwhile, former MIC deputy Youth leader, V Mugilan, has launched a “Save MIED Movement” to ensure MIED is not a monopoly of Samy Vellu’s men.

“MIED is worth RM1 billion belonging to MIC and poor Indians. Samy Vellu is trying to hijack it by increasing the number of members so he retains absolute control of MIED,” Mugilan said.

He also has a message for Samy Vellu: “If you are a gentleman, please give MIED to MIC. Otherwise, I will raise a second wave of protests against you to quit (as MIED chairman).”

Mugilan also urged Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to intervene as the Barisan Nasional (BN) government had pumped RM330 million into the MIED.

Last year, SA Vigneswaran, a MIED member, filed a RM100 million suit against Samy Vellu and the eight trustees for mismanagement of funds involving the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST).

Apart from AIMST, Tafe College and several landbanks in Perak are among the assets owned by MIED.