‘Pakatan’s Indian reps jittery of MIC’s rise’

Instead of a quit BN dare over Interlok, secretary general S Murugesan invites DAP's Manogaran to work as a team to get the book out of the education system.

PETALING JAYA: MIC secretary general S Murugesan said the call by Teluk Intan MP M Manogaran for MIC to quit Barisan Nasional showed that Indian reps in Pakatan Rakyat are nervous of MIC’s resurgence.

“He’s coming out with a panic statement now that he is fearful of MIC’s ascendency among the people,” said Murugesan of the DAP leader.

“The Indian reps within Pakatan Rakyat have failed miserably to deliver on their promises to the Indian community.

“I’m surprised by his statement. He has the audacity to blame MIC when we made a stand against Interlok in schools since day one. They only made their stand known last week.”

Murugesan also had a piece of advice for Manogaran: “Let’s work together to get the book out of the education system.”

He was responding to Manogaran’s statement yesterday that MIC has no more dignity and legitimacy after failing to convince the government to withdraw Interlok.

Manogaran also said that MIC could not even defend amendments to the novel as proposed by the three Indian representatives in the independent panel to review the book.

The three quit on March 16 when the panelists had reneged on an earlier consensus to make about 100 amendments to the novel portraying Indians in a negative light.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who had met the panel earlier wanted minimal adjustment to the novel.

Apart from wanting the word ‘pariah’ ommitted from the book, he maintained factual errors need not be corrected on the grounds that it did not have any bearing to racial sensitivities. - FMT