NGO backs Vell Paari’s ultimatum

WargaAMAN says he did right in calling for action against Ibrahim Ali and Ridhuan Tee.

PETALING JAYA: A group claiming to represent the interest of Malaysian Indians today declared its support for MIC strategy director S Vell Paari in his threat to leave the party over president G Palanivel’s inaction against insults to the community.

WargaAMAN, which calls itself a coalition of 20 Indian-based NGOs, said the MIC central executive committee (CWC) member was right in calling for a censure of Perkasa president Ibrahim Ai and academic Ridhaun Tee Abdullah for “vicious racist” remarks.

Vell Paari issued his ultimatum last week in the wake of Tee’s publication of an article that disparaged Hindus. In a letter to Palanivel, he repeated a threat he had directed at Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein—that he would quit MIC and call on Indians to support Pakatan Rakyat in the general election.

The letter also recounted Ibrahim’s threats against non-Muslims. Vell Paari complained that BN had not seen it fit to act against the Perkasa chief and was now showing a similar reluctance to punish Tee.

WargaAMAN secretary-general S Barathidasan said his organisation was proud of Vell Paari in his show of courage.

“Vell Paari is very bold and brave,” he said. “He is not afraid of being sacked from his party. He is more interested in the wellbeing of the Indian community.”

Barathidasan also defended Vell Paari against an attack by his CWC colleague, KP Samy.

Samy had commented that Vell Paari’s ultimatum was “unethical”.

“Samy says that Palanivel plans to take the issue up in a cabinet meeting,” Barathidasan noted. “When will this happen? After GE13? After BN becomes an opposition party?”

He said Vell Paari had distinguished himself in standing up for the Indian community. “So far, nobody in MIC has shown such courage.

“Furthermore, we believe that Vell Paari is also campaigning for free and fair elections, in line with Bersih’s demands.”

Barathidasan affirmed that WargaAMAN was non-partisan, saying it would continue to work in the interest of the public instead of for the benefit of politicians.

“We supported Pakatan Rakyat because we wanted to see changes,” he said. “But the BN government, realising that the opposition has a lot of support, has begun to transform.

“We now have BR1M, TR1MA, SARA and BL1M and so on. The people are definitely benefitting from these programmes and this is what we need.”

Meanwhile Samy said it was important that the party concentrated on the impending general election instead of causing distractions for themselves.

“I am defending the image of the party and BN on the whole. In my 40-years in the party, I have not asked for positions.

“I put a lot of effort to make the party lively and ensure it helped the Malaysian Indian community. We do not want this in the run-up o the general election.

“Instead of talking about this, we should be concentrating on the general election. Not only us, all component parties should also do this,” he added.