s this weekend
In the 2008 general election that followed the 2007 Hindraf protest, the party lost massively on the back of voter rejection, not just by Indians but also Malays and Chinese, who saw Samy Vellu and the party as fossilised organisms living in the past.
While Indian voter support is gradually returning, the trend is more for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak personally and an endorsement of his outreach programmes than for Barisan Nasional (BN), the MIC or for Samy Vellu, who along with his son Vell Paari, are simply hated figures.
The big question for the 3,000 delegates tomorrow is, when will Samy Vellu step down? And where is the party heading to after that?
Can his successor unite the party, give direction and perform in the 13th general election that is rushing up? Will the party break up and disappear from the political scene?
Samy Vellu has come under severe pressure to give a firm date to step down.
The September 2011 date he announced three months ago is unacceptable because the MIC, with Samy Vellu out of the way, needs ample time to revamp and offer the community a new hope under a new leader.
What programmes the new leader offers and how these are received will go a long way to decide the MIC’s future.
Samy Vellu, said his closes allies, is beginning to wind up in preparation for an early exit that can come as early as January 2011.
“He is telling his closest allies and long time friends that he can’t continue any longer, that the pressure is too great on him and that they should all prepare for a day soon without his support,” a top retired MIC leader told The Malaysian Insider.
“He used to play it close to his chest but now he is telling us about his plans,” he said. “We expect him to make an announcement on his plans at the AGM on Saturday.”
“He will say he is leaving soon but is not likely to give a firm date,” the leader said but adding January 2011 is the final date. “He can’t go on after that, the country’s political situation will not allow it.”
Sources told The Malaysian Insider, that deputy president Datuk G Palanivel, with the assistance of the government and its agencies, has a plan in place to start the revamp of the party soon after Samy Vellu steps down.
Najib is willing to consider any request for assistance by a MIC under a new leadership and has already made good on his promises to assist the Indian community in various ways with his direct cash and other assistance to Sri Murugan Centre, the community’s highly appreciated social reform movement through education.
He has provided a special unit trust investment scheme although it remains under-subscribed for want of cash to subscribe. He has given money for Tamil schools improvement and offered more scholarships.
He has set up a Cabinet committee on the Indian community, chaired by him, to oversee implementation.
All these assistance is by-passing the MIC and making it increasingly an irrelevant organisation.
But it would end the moment Samy Vellu is out of the way, the sources said. “Without him the MIC will be once more be partners with Najib.”
Under the circumstances, Samy Vellu’s best option is to get what he can get through negotiations for his retirement, step down and keep out of the way.
With the Gerakan Anti Samy Vellu or GAS not letting up on their mission to constantly harass Samy Vellu out, the days are numbered for the veteran who became president in 1979 on the sudden death of then incumbent Tan Sri V. Manicavasagam.
“We are not going to let up but continue demanding for him to step down. We want an inquiry into the millions in losses suffered by MIED and Maika Holdings,” said GAS founder V. Mugilan, the former MIC deputy Youth chief.
While some veteran Samy Vellu sycophants are arguing against pressuring Samy Vellu to step down, the younger generation is all for a new leader at the helm.
“The MIC is full of leaders over 60 years old. It is a tired, spent party for old men and led by an old man who would soon need a stick to stand,” said Mugilan. “How will the MIC ever attract the younger generation.”
Samy Vellu told the Wanita wing at their AGM last week that it was his last time addressing them, which many take as a cue that this AGM is the final curtain for Samy Vellu.
Said a Wanita leader, Samy Vellu is expected to exit in January 2011 and use the Pravasi Indian Diaspora meet in India in January as the forum to take leave of Tamils on the world stage for he had in better times, imagined himself as a world Tamil leader. It is very likely that Saturday’s AGM, to be opened by Najib, will be Samy Vellu’s very last.
And he would be leaving as a disgraced leader — with Maika Holdings in shambles and his brainchild MIED suing him and his crony directors for RM100 million.
Unloved and unwanted, the Indian community will be happy to see the last of Samy Vellu
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