Rebels move against leader of Najib’s Indian party

By Baradan Kuppusamy - The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — The curtain is finally coming down on R.S. Thanenthiran (picture), president of the Malaysia Makkal Sakthi Party, on whom Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had pinned high hopes on to win over the Tamil working class that voted Pakatan Rakyat in the 2008 general election.

A group led by party deputy president A. Vathemurthy which had been involved in a power struggle with Thanenthiran and his factions for control of the party since October 2009, resolved at a meeting today to subject their president to an inquiry for alleged misconduct.

They will ask Thanenthiran to attend the inquiry on Jan 17 and if found guilty, sack him from the party.

“We have to nip the problem before it becomes too big to resolve,” Vathemurthy told The Malaysian Insider today.

However, Thanenthiran, who is overseas and controls one-half of the party’s 27-member Central Committee, is expected to appoint more members to the committee, convene an emergency session on his return and sack Vathemurthy and his supporters.

The constant infighting among them has also turned the once promising party into a laughing stock in the Indian community.

Vathemurthy has said before that he does not want to be the president but is offering the job to others.

The most likely candidate, according to party secretary Kannan Ramasamy, is Klang businessman Omms Thiagarajan, who is close to former MIC deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam.

Sources said if given the presidency, Omms would be keeping the seat warm for Subramaniam, whose days in the MIC are numbered after he lost in a bid to win the MIC deputy president’s post in October 2008.

Subramaniam, the sources said, is on the look-out for a vehicle - an NGO or a political party — to move his camp from the MIC after any chance of succeeding MIC president Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu dimmed with his defeat.

MIC vice-president and Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S Subramaniam is already emerging as a deputy presidential candidate once Datuk G Palanivel moves up the ladder after Samy Vellu retires sometime late this year.

Subramaniam, longtime deputy to Samy Vellu, would be finally squeezed out when this transition happens.

Many other MIC leaders and grassroots members are also said to be on the look out for a vehicle through which they hope to jump to Pakatan Rakyat if they feel the Barisan Nasional ship is about to sink for good.

The leadership tussle in the Makkal Sakthi party should be seen in the larger context of the changes in the political landscape and in preparation for the 13th general election.

While being close to Subramaniam, Omms also funds functions attended by PKR leaders including a recent one in Klang attended by PKR supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and former Hindraf leader Vasantha Kumar.