OUTSPOKEN woman lawyer Saraswathy Kandasamy and two others are expected to be the first MIC members to be sacked from the party after its recent elections for breach of discipline.
The trio, all strong allies of defeated deputy presidential candidate Datuk S. Subramaniam, will appear individually before the party’s disciplinary committee today — and the lady is not about to go down without a fight.
First, she intends to remove the discipline master Tan Sri K.S. Nijhar from hearing the matter on the grounds that he is guilty of indiscipline as well.
She recalled that Nihjar has yet to face action for staging a “dramatic walk-out” during a Central Working Committee meeting in 2006 when he was a party vice-president. She told Malay Mail that Nijhar was “not fit” to chair the meeting today since he had acted in a manner detrimental to the party.
Then, Saraswathy intends to hand over a letter to the committee calling for disciplinary action against party
president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu for reportedly saying that the MIED and AIMST University are not part of
the MIC.
To date, Samy Vellu has not refuted reports that he was planning to take MIED and other NGOs out of the party
and place them under a foundation that he would head.
Saraswathy has been hauled up for her Sept 24 letter asking for disciplinary action against Samy Vellu whom she said should not have announced his “official” line-up of candidates for the various posts ahead of the
party elections.
She charged that by doing so , Samy Vellu had not only divided the party but had tarnished the image of the party by saying his “chosen” lot were weak and that he needed to stay on and train them. Saraswathy also claimed that the Sept 12 polls were not fair because Samy Vellu, who had been elected president months before, had used the MIC machinery to ensure victory for his “official” line-up.
The Taman Desa branch member was also in the forefront of a move to nullify the party elections by a group
calling itself the MIC election irregularities committee.
Two members of this group, defeated vice-presidential candidate P. Subramaniam and lawyer Saaran Nadarajah who lost in his bid for a CWC seat, will also appear before the disciplinary committee between 3pm and 4pm.
Three others are expected to be summoned at a later date. They are R. Anbahalagan, T. Ananthan and N. Subramaniam who had jointly alleged rampant and widespread irregularities during balloting and counting of votes during the elections.
They have lodged complaints with the Registrar of Societies regarding vote buying, cheating and other irregularities.
Many view action against Saraswathy, Subramaniam and Saaran as the prelude to the expulsion of their mentor, the former MIC deputy president Subramaniam. Samy Vellu had said that disciplinary action would be initiated against Subramaniam because of his statement to Malay Mail that implied that the party condoned vote-rigging in its elections.
Subramaniam had confirmed a confession by former party stalwart Datuk V. Govindaraj that the latter pocketed 30 votes that allowed Samy Vellu to defeat the former by 26 votes to win the deputy president post in
1978.
Samy Vellu had also said that Subramaniam would be referred to the disciplinary committee for bringing in 500
youths, believed to be “gangsters” to disrupt the recent party assembly.
Subramaniam failed in his bid to regain the deputy president post after he lost by 82 votes to incumbent Datuk
G. Palanivel who garnered 629 votes in the Sept 12 party polls.
Sources said that expulsion for “Saraswathy and her gang” is inevitable as the party leadership is bound to
maintain its stance of sacking critics.
“The big one is yet to come,” said a party leader, making an obvious reference to Subramaniam.
Mixed views over calls for EGM
CALLS for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) for the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) have received a mixed reaction. The EGM idea for MIC was apparently mooted by leaders opposed to Samy Vellu after a secret meetinglast month between severalIndian NGOs and individualsconcerned about theparty’s future and the Indiancommunity at large.Vocal grassroots party leader M. Karunanidhi is all for the EGM, stating that it was what grassroots-level
leaders wanted.
“MIC was weak and after the party polls, it is even weaker. We are currently the weakest component party in Barisan Nasional (BN) and we need an EGM to resolve the issue,”said the Klang division deputy chief.
“Umno and MCA have conducted their EGMs respectively and it is best for MIC to do so for the sake of the community.
The party heads should not worry about the EGM if they are working for the interest of the Indian community,
“The president was quoted as saying that 50 divisions and 150 branches have to shape up or ship out. It would be interesting which divisions and branches he will choose, as many of these branches could be the ones that went against him,” Karunanidhi added.
He also refuted claims by information chief P. Kamalanathan that the majority of delegates will not be swayed into supporting the EGM.
Karunanidhi said: “I am very happy to hear his comments. I think he should put his money where his mouth
is. We take it as a challenge. Bring it on and we will see who has the majority.”
The MIC party constitution requires that for an EGM to be called, 25 per cent of the 140 MIC divisions must request for it. A Centra l Working Committee (CWC) member, who declined to be named, said division chiefs
are ready for an EGM, as they have the numbers required but they are monitoring developments in the
Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED).
“If we feel that MIC will be losing MIED and AIMST, then it is only fair for us to call for an EGM,” he said.
However, Youth chief T. Mohan hit out at Karunanidhi and said there was no reason for MIC to call for an EGM.
“We cannot call for an EGM just because MCA has done so. We do not have any issues that are relevant
for an EGM to be called.
“This is a time for all MIC members to come together. If we call for an EGM now, we will be spending four to
five months to resolve inhouse party matters, when we could be spending that time regaining the people’s
faith in MIC,” Mohan said.
“Those who were not happy with the party polls last September would definitely want an EGM. If you ask Datuk Seri’s (S. Samy Vellu) supporters, they are happy with the direction of the party.
“We have many new faces in the CWC. The information chief, the secretarygeneral and the treasurergeneral
are all young. We understand why Datuk Seri is still around. A captain cannot dock the ship without stabilising it first. He wants to streamline the party before leaving,” added Mohan.
Former vice-president Datuk S. Sothinathan, when asked his opinion, said: “We can’t just call for an EGM
because the other component parties are doing so.
“MIC’s constitution is very unclear on this. There should be a specific reason why an EGM needs to be held. I looked at the constitution and it is very unclear.
Therefore, we cannot follow the footsteps of Umno or MCA,” he said. Yesterday, Malay Mail reported that a group of MIC members, having exhausted all avenues of ousting the president, had a brainwave looking at the MCA leadership crisis brought about by an EGM.
Kamalanathan said the leadership was not perturbed by any move to call for an EGM.
“As far as MIC is concerned, we have just concluded our annual general assembly, the highest decision-making body in the party and I think the decision has been made on the future of the party leadership.”
Even if an EGM is proposed, the newly appointed information chief said the majority of delegates would
not be swayed into supporting it.
Samy Vellu declined to comment.
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