The 'conspiracy' against MIC - Malaysiakini

A political wedlock that has spanned for more than five decades is now at the brink of a divorce. More than a year ago, the very mention of this would have been dismissed to the bins of preposterousness.

But the March 8 general election last year had tipped the scales for Barisan Nasional and the nightmare of losing power grows more dreadful with each sunset.

The ruling coalition, especially Umno, appears to be desperate.

According to observers, the denial syndrome is waning and the reality on the ground has left its leaders terrified of what the future might hold.

As the clock ticks down for the next general election, Umno is said to be looking for a 'quick-fix' solution even if this means burning bridges with its partners.

And MIC insiders believe that Umno has hatched a conspiracy against their party and its president S Samy Vellu, one that has been in the making even before the last general election.

According to them, Umno employed the antiquated strategy - the enemy of my enemy is my friend - to ensure that the MIC president was defeated in the polls.

"This was proven when a local Indian businessmen aligned to a former top MIC leader admitted that he and a former Umno minister conspired to ensure the defeat," they said, without naming those involved.

Back then, it was said that Umno wanted to seize control of the powerful Works Ministry and to do so, Samy Vellu had to be ousted.

True enough, in the post-March 8 cabinet, MIC was given the more junior human resources portfolio much to the chagrin of the president.

Severe repercussions

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the insiders alleged that the 'conspiracy' has now moved into high gear.

However, they warned that it could lead to severe repercussions, including the possibility of MIC leaving BN to operate independently or even joining forces with Pakatan Rakyat.

They also claimed that Umno was attempting to "split and confuse" the Indian community by approving and associating itself with many Indian-based parties.

This was in reference to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's open support for the Makkal Sakthi Party, which he is scheduled to launch on Oct 10.

"This is the divide and rule policy of the British that Umno has used since independence," said the insiders.

Another strategy was to use the mainstream media, especially the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia and Tamil papers aligned to Umno, to tarnish MIC's image.

These media outfits are given the task of continuously publishing or airing negative stories regarding MIC and its president, said the insiders.

Stage three of the conspiracy was to paint Samy Vellu as the chief culprit for all the shortcomings related to the Indian community.

"They shift the blame to the MIC leadership for the government's failure to look after the Indian community by constantly saying that Samy Vellu did nothing for the Indians and he is to be blamed solely," alleged the insiders.

'Spreading hate messages'

The party insiders claimed that Umno was also "spreading hate messages through the media and public speeches" in order to achieve its aim.

As an example, they cited Najib's opening speech at the recently concluded MIC general assembly where the premier openly called on party delegates to back change.

"However, this approach backfired similar to the one by (former premier and Umno president) Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the eve of the MIC elections on Sept 12," they said.

The insiders also accused Umno of "colluding with a certain former MIC top leader to popularise him through the media in an attempt to take control of MIC."

This was an obvious referrence to defeated deputy presidential candidate and Samy Vellu's political nemesis S Subramaniam.

The insiders stated that Umno leaders found it hard to digest Samy Vellu's "outspokenness and direct confrontation against Umno" and therefore were attempting to weaken his grip on MIC.

"This move was intensified after they realised that Samy Vellu still had a strong command in MIC when the majority of his team won in the party elections," they said.

In view of this, the insiders said the powers-that-be want to ensure that the president exits the party as soon as possible and be replaced with a leader who would "kow-tow" to Umno.