MIC’s DPM dare for DCM

The promise to appoint an Indian deputy prime minister should be in black and white, says a MIC man. But DCM P Ramasamy explains that it is just his personal opinion.

KLANG: Penang Deputy Chief Minister (II) P Ramasamy had purportedly promised that Pakatan Rakyat will appoint an Indian deputy prime minister if it captured Putrajaya. A MIC leader wants this in black and white.

While Ramasamy told FMT that he had merely expressed a personal opinion in response to a question posed by a journalist, MIC Central Working Committee (CWC) member KP Samy demanded that the so-called promise be included in the opposition bloc’s election manifesto.

Tamil newspapers had quoted Ramasamy as making the remark during an event in Johor.

Contacted today, the deputy chief minister explained that he was asked by a reporter on the possibility of Pakatan appointing an Indian deputy prime minister if it formed the federal government, to which he had replied that it could happen.

“This is my personal opinion and I’ll raise this matter with the Pakatan council,” he said.

The DAP leader also took a swipe at KP Samy, questioning the MIC leader’s motive for kicking up a fuss over the issue.

“Is he opposed to the idea of having an Indian deputy prime minister? I don’t have to respond to his challenge since he’s is just a ‘mosquito’ in MIC,” he said.

On a sarcastic note, Ramasamy said that perhaps Umno had not given MIC a deputy prime minister post because there were no capable leaders in MIC but that was not the case in Pakatan.

‘Empty promises’ to win support

Meanwhile, Samy had earlier dismissed Ramasamy’s statement as an “empty promise” to purportedly hoodwink the Indian community.

According to him, Pakatan’s Indian leaders were in a quandary because the community’s support for Barisan Nasional had increased.

“So this is a tactic by Ramasamy to get the attention of the community,” he said.

The CWC member also took PKR’s Selangor exco Dr Xavier Jayakumar to task for previously claiming that Indians would be given four ministerial positions should Pakatan come into power.

“Pakatan Indian leaders are trying to confuse the community. They are desperate for Indian votes. They got the community’s support in the last election but lost the backing because they did not do anything for the community after coming into power in states like Selangor and Penang.

“They realise that Indian support is waning… so they resort to these sort of statements which are a bunch of lies… if they are serious they should add it into Pakatan’s election manifesto… put it in black and white,” he said.