KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 – Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu and the MIC are laying claim to the return of Indian support for the Barisan Nasional (BN), and this appears to have given the embattled leader a new lease on life.
“The return of Indian voters is our victory in Bagan Pinang and we know now how to win back the Indian votes,” MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu told Malaysian Insider on the sidelines of A Sense of Urgency forum at a hotel today.
The MIC is quickly exploiting the gains achieved in the recent Bagan Pinang by-election where nearly 70 per cent of Indian voters who had voted for PAS in 2008 returned to BN in a dramatic reversal.
The party feels the reversal was an MIC achievement and is taking swift steps to exploit and ride on the momentum of the Bagan Pinang victory.
Today's party forum is for state and division leaders and is conducted by outside corporate experts to explain in detail why the MIC lost support, why Hindraf gained popularity and how to recover lost support.
“Nearly 50 per cent of Indian voters dumped us in 2008 and we now know why and how to win back their loyalties,” said Samy Vellu.
Samy Vellu said that after Indian voters fled the MIC they were not happy outside the MIC.
He said they instead felt isolated and exploited by people and political parties.
“They feel lonely and unappreciated,” Samy Vellu said. “They are lost and they want to come back.”
“They need leadership and appreciation and we are beginning to give it to them,” he said adding the party was reforming itself, hiring experts and opening up for new blood including the educated class.
Earlier when opening the forum, Samy Vellu, speaking in a mixture of Tamil, Malay and English, urged delegates to drop the defeatist mindset that has gripped the party and rise to fight again.
“If we fail to rise and fight back we are already defeated…we are buried for good and forever,” he said likening the MIC to an old, battered lady, limping in life and waiting for death.
“To attract the loyalties of Indians we have to become attractive again,” Samy Vellu said adding the party is transforming into a young and lovely woman with a sexy get-up. “People will die for a lovely woman.”
Samy Vellu said the party will soon form 700 new 1 Malaysia branches and most will be led by new faces including fresh university graduates.
He also said complacency was ruining the MIC and the forum was a way to reenergize the party and make it attractive to attract new blood.
He said that while rivals were speaking up but in a disorganised way, the MIC is a party and well organized at all levels and speaks with one voice.
While a new upbeat mood is visible in the MIC, the task of winning back the Indian voters is a formidable task but divisions in Pakatan Rakyat and its failure to deliver on election promises is helping MIC reinvent itself.
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