MIC AGM: No bang, only Pakatan bashing

The party has not done anything at winning back the hearts and minds of the Malaysian Indian community.

KUALA LUMPUR: The much awaited 66th MIC annual general assembly ended today without any firm decision on the fate of the 1.8 million Malaysian Indian community. Instead it was turned into a Pakatan Rakyat bashing platform.

Officiating the assembly, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak launched a stinging attack against the opposition by repeating the word “tipu” (cheat) more than 20 times in his 30 minute speech referring to the opposition pact.

Claiming that the opposition coalition was full of lies, Najib said that Pakatan was only good in making promises compared to the BN which fulfilled promises.

He also brushed aside Pakatan Rakyat’s claim that there were 300,000 stateless Indians in the country. He slammed the opposition in handling the Kampung Buah Pala (Penang) squatters issue and the demolition of a private shrine in Sepang recently.

But this was not expected from Najib. He did not dwell on the plight of the community or its problems.

Several observers attending the assembly were clearly disappointed with Najib’s speech as it did not address the issues confronting the Malaysian Indian community.

Najib failed to use the platform to energise the party which seemed less vibrant of late.

Despite, being the last MIC AGM before the 13th general election, party president G Palanivel’s presidential speech was not hard hitting, making only a list of  “minor” requests for the government to fulfill.

The assembly was expected to be used by Palanivel and Najib to boost the Indian support for the ruling coalition.

Sub-standard debates
“Palani missed the golden opportunity to express the feelings of Indians, who have been marginalised over the last 55 years, to Najib and BN,” said a delegate from Perak who did not want to be named.

“Indian votes are pivotal to BN in the upcoming election. Thus, Palanivel should have raised bigger issues at his doorstep than talking about photocopy machines to Tamil schools and other peanut matters,” he added.

The one-day MIC general assembly was attended by some 1,400 party delegates and 2,000 observers here at Putra World Trade Centre(PWTC).

Noted as the shortest MIC general assembly in the history of the party, the one day assembly also proved to be very dull following sub-standard debates by delegates who spoke on the presidential address and five resolutions tabled.

The delegates largely praised the prime minister and party president by saying that both the leaders were doing their best to bring back the Malaysian Indians community back to the BN fold.

A survey form was also circulated outside the AGM hall, requiring respondents to state among other things, if the BN would form the next federal government.

It also required the respondents to state the strengths and weaknesses of Pakatan Rakyat. It also wanted to know steps to be taken by the BN to secure Indian votes at the next election.

The survey form came with a free 2013 calender.

There were also two hand-books, namely ‘Janji Ditepati’ and ‘Janji Dicapati’. The Janji Ditepati praised the BN for keeping up its promises to the people while Janji Dicapati depicted Pakatan Rakyat’s failure to keep its 2008 election promises.

Judging from the assembly today, MIC would be facing an uphill task of not only winning seats at the next election but also in winning back the hearts and minds of the Malaysian Indian community.