Tempers flare at MIC CWC meeting

Party vice-president SK Devamany is said to have lost his cool when accused of being behind a campaign to oust party president G Palanivel.

KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting yesterday turned into an heated affair when party vice-president SK Devamany blew his top.

It was also learnt that party president G Palanivel fumbled for answers when several CWC members questioned him over the status of the RM100 million special allocation given for Tamil schools in the 2012 budget.

Speaking to FMT, a CWC member who wished to remain anonymous, said that the ruckus started when Klang-based KP Samy complained about a statement made by ex-MIC leader VT Rajen.

The latter had said that he would launch a movement in Cameron Highlands to oust Palanivel if the president stood for the parliament seat where Devamany was the incumbent.

Samy also urged Devamany to stop Rajen from launching the Gerakan Anti-Palanivel (GAP).

Devamany replied that he had already made a statement that he would abide by the party leadership’s decision pertaining to seats.

“Despite this, KP Samy kept insisting that Devamany was behind the movement and this irked the latter, who started shouting,” said the party insider.

He added that the situation became worse when former senator S Ravichandran and S Vell Paari joined the fray.

“While Ravichandran supported KP Samy, Vell Paari slammed the former, claiming that he was talking rubbish.

“Everyone was shocked when Vell Paari shouted at Ravichandran saying, ‘Ravi don’t talk rubbish; please shut up and sit down’,” he added.

He said this forced Palanivel to call for calm.

Rajen, a former branch chairman of MIC Taman Mujur, Klang, was expelled from MIC after he threatened to form GAP if Palanivel chose to contest in any of the four parliament seats held by MIC.

The party touted as the largest Indian-based political party in the country won only three of the nine parliamentary seats it contested under the BN banner in the 2008 general election. It won back another seat in a 2010 by-election.

The four seats are Segamat, held by deputy president and Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam; Cameron Highlands and Tapah held by vice-presidents and deputy ministers Devamany and M Saravanan respectively; and Hulu Selangor (P Kamalanathan).

Caught by surprise
Meanwhile, the party insider claimed that Palanivel appeared to be caught by surprise when veteran leaders S Veerasingam and Johor-based MM Samy questioned the status of the RM100 million special allocation awarded to Tamil schools in the 2012 budget.

“The moment MM Samy raised the question, several other CWC members also murmured ‘Yes, we want to know the status of the allocation’,” he said.

“Palanivel went silent for few seconds and later said that he had the list of the schools which received the allocation,” he added.

The president also promised to show the list in the near future when the CWC members requested him to expose the list.

Recently, Malacca PKR vice chairman G Rajendran alleged that Palanivel had misused the fund by allocating it to fully-aided new Tamil schools when it was meant for partially- aided Tamil schools.