Kamalanathan: 'Tin kosong', hand-kisser, plagiarizer or brave new MIC hero?

The average Malaysian would have been perplexed to read that the MP for Hulu Selangor, P Kamalanathan, had drawn up a list of items for a fair election on his website which appears to have been entirely lifted from Bersih’s demands.

Topping the list was a proposal that "a neutral government caretaker" be appointed once Parliament is dissolved for the general election. Other 'initiatives' he presented at the second meeting of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reform was the use of inedible ink, reforming the postal ballot system, extending the campaign period and providing all political parties with fair access to the media.

Sucked DPM's hand

Now, why would an MP known to be a particularly sycophantic toady propose such ideas, even if it is plagiarized completely from Bersih?

Kamalanathan, for those who may not remember, shamed himself by bending down and kissing, practically sucking, on Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s hand.

Other Umno leaders who were there including another toady, Ahmad Maslan the information chief, were stunned. Muhyiddin was alarmed - would he get his hand back?

There is no precedent for it in Indian culture. Indians may offer you a Namaste, or they may shake your hand.

It clearly showed the lengths that this particular MIC MP would go to to suck up to his Umno overlords. While there is no doubt that all MIC leaders jump to Umno’s command, few had ever demeaned themselves so publicly like Kamalanathan did.

D is for Dunce

Kamalanathan’s paper qualifications continue to be in doubt and to-date there has been no proof that he actually earned them. His schoolmates remember him as the class dunce.

Since his election, he appears to have been engaged in a constant publicity campaign on his own behalf rather than his party. Perhaps due to this, he was removed, humiliatingly, as the party information chief.

Kamalanathan, seeing that the writing on the wall is clearly in favor of free and fair elections, is trying to gain some popularity for himself with this move. It is a pity that he neglected to credit Bersih as the source of his ‘proposals’.

And it is ironic because the Hulu Selangor by-election itself was rife with dirty tactics, vote-buying and phantom voters sponsored by the BN. The going rate for an Indian vote was RM200 per vote in the estates, courtesy of the MIC. It is laughable that Kamalanathan should be sitting on the Parliamentary Select Committee, considering that if there had been a free and fair election in Hulu Selangor, he would have lost!

Writing is on the wall

If at all Kamalanathan has any conviction in his ideas, he must offer to resign if his proposals are not accepted. This he will never do, because like all MIC ‘leaders’, position is everything to such as him. And so he has opted to play this cynical little game, pretending to have principles that he does not. He is indeed, a ‘Tin Kosong’ or the proverbial Empty Vessel that makes the most noise.

The PSC on free and fair elections itself, after all, is a sham. It is a tactic for BN to pretend that they too are for free and fair elections. Meanwhile, GE-13 will be called and we will have the usual blatant election rigging and cheating from the BN, particularly in East Malaysia.

Yet even such tactics may not save the BN from being defeated. The majority who want the BN gone is too big this time.

It is unfortunate for Malaysians that creatures like Kamalanathan and his ilk continue to darken Parliament’s wood-paneled corridors. But they may take comfort from the fact that after the next GE, all these hypocrites will most likely be gone.

Malaysia Chronicle