KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 (Bernama) -- The MIC has expelled presidential aspirant Datuk M. Muthupalaniappan from the party, dashing his hopes of contesting the party top post at the presidential election expected to be held either in April or May.
"I received a letter dated Jan 21, 2009 from Tan Sri G.Vadiveloo as chairman of the disciplinary committee stating that I am expelled from membership of MIC with immediate effect and further saying that I may appeal within 14 days from the receipt of the expulsion letter to the CWC (MIC central working committee, the party's highest decision-making body).
"Although in the letter he said that the decision was after due consideration of my explanation, I was not given the due chance to adduce any witness to prove that the statements made by myself are lawful and the truth, nothing but the whole truth," Muthupalaniappan said in a statement here today.
On Tuesday, Muthupalaniappan faced the three-man MIC disciplinary committee after he was given a show-cause notice for issuing press statements against the interests of the party.
He faced the committee for 45 minutes before telling waiting reporters he was not allowed to, among others, bring his lawyers to the hearing, adduce 15 witnesses and obtain a new date for the hearing.
"The whole process is an eyewash and pre-empted action to stop me from contesting in the forthcoming MIC presidential election," Muthupalaniappan, who is also a former MIC vice-president, said in the statement.
He said the action against him was due to fear that incumbent president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu would face the same fate as his last parliamentary election in Sungai Siput if Muthupalaniappan were to contest the MIC top post.
Samy Vellu, who has been at the helm of the MIC since 1979, lost the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat in the last general election in March 2008.
"Anyway, no right-thinking person will accept him as the president of the MIC. He (Samy Vellu) cannot claim to be the popular leader of the Indian community.
"Samy Vellu and his cronies may remove me from MIC but they cannot remove me from my services to the Indian community and the nation. I am happy that it is the right time for me not to be a member of the MIC," Muthupalaniappan said.
He said that if he continued to be a member of the party, he would have been branded as a traitor to the community, the Barisan Nasional (BN) and the nation.
"However, I am proud to feel that in my MIC leadership as an elected state chairman for 16 years, not an appointed one, I did bring a lot of development, changes and benefit to the Indian community and the state to the satisfaction of the entire Indian community in the state. That was MIC before," said the 68-year-old leader from Seremban.
Muthupalaniappan further said that he had wanted to bring "a great change" in the MIC but "I feel Samy Vellu needs the MIC presidency as a shield".
"I hope sooner or later MIC grassroots-level leaders will place the MIC's interests before themselves," he added.
-- BERNAMA
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