The Bagan MIC dilemma

The sacking of Bagan MIC chief Henry Benedict may further frustrate BN and MIC's plan of winning back the Bagan Dalam state seat.

GEORGE TOWN: The sacking of Bagan MIC division chairman Henry Benedict Asirvatham is set to trigger an exodus of members and closure of all branches in the division.

In other words, the Bagan division will be literally defunct, dampening the already slim chances of the party and Barisan Nasional to wrest back the Bagan Dalam state seat in the next general election.

This does not augur well for BN, which aspires to win back between 10 and 15 state seats that it lost to Pakatan Rakyat in the last general election.

Bagan Dalam, which is among those seats, has 17,194 registered voters, with Chinese voters accounting at 52.6%, Malays 24.3% and Indians 22.3%.

MIC contests the Bagan Dalam and Prai state seats under BN’s electoral arrangement in Penang.

If the Bagan division, which has 15 branches and over 2,000 members, were to close shop, party insiders said MIC chances of regaining Bagan Dalam will be “virtually zero.”

Bagan Dalam, which comes under the Bagan parliamentary constituency, is currently being held by DAP’s A Tanasekharan, who defeated incumbent PK Subbaiyah, now state MIC chairman, in the 2008 election.

Political tsunami aside, another reason MIC was defeated in Bagan Dalam then was the four-year suspension of the Bagan division (2006 – 2010).

Now the same danger of not having a local party election machinery in the constituency looms.

“It’s going to be a sure defeat for MIC and BN in Bagan Dalam if the party leadership upholds the termination of Henry’s membership,” said a senior division chief in the state.

The Bagan Dalam effects, they predicted, can also spill over to the neighbouring Prai seat, currently held by DAP’s Deputy Chief Minister II (DCM 2) P Ramasamy.

When contacted, Henry said he has not received any official letter about the membership termination, but only heard the news from party colleagues.

He plans to file an appeal once he receives the letter. Under MIC’s constitution, a sacked member has two weeks to appeal against the decision.

‘Hidden hands behind sacking’

Henry declined to comment when asked whether his expulsion will trigger an exodus of division members from the party.

He was expelled from the party following an internal misconduct inquiry on him last Thursday at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. The three-man inquiry was chaired by KS Nijhar, head of the party disciplinary committee.

Others in the inquiry were R Ganesan, Perak Legislative House Speaker, and J Randhir Singh, a party central working committee member and Social Strategic Foundation (YSS) deputy chairman.

The fourth member of the disciplinary committee, Senator Subbaiyah, who can’t see eye-to-eye with Henry, excused himself from the inquiry to avoid a conflict of interest.

Slapped with a show cause letter on May 18 demanding him to explain why he criticised MIC acting president G Palanivel openly in FMT, the 50-year-old division leader replied on May 28.

Henry claimed that Palanivel was plotting to “politically kill” party deputy president Dr S Subramaniam, the human resources minister.

He also questioned the legality of the party’s decision to re-accept expelled members vis-à-vis Articles 15.4 and 61.5 of the party constitution.

Henry was referring to the re-acceptance of anti-Samy Vellu movement (GAS) activists – V Mugilan, G Kumar Aamaan dan KP Samy.

In his reply to the show-cause letter, Henry claimed that his Bagan division’s earlier suspension was engineered by Palanivel with the tacit support of Subbaiyah.

Insiders accused certain hidden hands of being behind Henry’s sacking, claiming that Nijhar and company were against taking such drastic action.

“Certain leaders have forced Nijhar’s committee to sack Henry,” they said.

Insiders claimed that the sacking was to kill Henry’s chances of becoming the party candidate in Bagan Dalam.

It’s learnt that MIC has short-listed Penang MIC secretary and Bukit Bendera division chief M Karuppanan and youth chief J Dhinagaran as potential candidates for Bagan Dalam.

The party’s shortlisted candidates for Prai are state deputy chairman L Krishnan, who was trounced by Ramasamy in 2008, and Batu Kawan division chief R Muthiah.

Lawyer Karuppanan and Krishnan are said to be Subbaiyah’s favoured candidates.

However, Henry is the pick of party grassroots members, especially from the mainland, and BN component parties as well, for Bagan Dalam.

It’s learnt that Henry was offered a deal, before and after the inquiry, to escape the sack by apologising to Palanivel.

Henry agreed albeit on condition that Palanivel and Subbaiyah also apologise to him for masterminding his division’s earlier suspension.

Since no apologies were forthcoming from either side, the axe inevitably fell on Henry.

MIC insiders said the top leadership should consider imposing lesser punishment against Henry to give the party a glimmer of hope to regain Bagan Dalam.

Or else, the Bagan MIC division will probably close shop leaving the party and BN counting their losses in the next election.