MIC fears poor turnout, postpones rally

Party defers plan for a second mammoth gathering as they fear there will be a small turnout, say sources.

PETALING JAYA: MIC has deferred its plan for a second mammoth gathering which was originally planned to be held on March 3 for fear of not being able to outdo the Unity Ponggal celebration last month, said sources.

The postponement of the event comes as a blow to the largest Indian-based political party in the country which is trying to shore-up Indian support just ahead of the general election.

MIC’s ‘Unity Ponggal’ festival last month at Dataran Merdeka drew close to 100,000 Indians. Impressed, the party announced that it would organise another one on March 3.

“We are rescheduling the event to March 13. We have yet to confirm the time and place,” said party treasurer Jaspal Singh, the man in charge of the second gathering.

He said the event was not only organised by the party leadership but also “involves all branch chairmen in Selangor,” he said.

Sources revealed that the postponement was to enable leaders to gather the crowd as a lack of crowd could spell doom for the party, especially for party president G Palanivel who wants to do one better than the Unity Ponggal gathering organised by his vice president M Saravanan.

In 2008, the Malaysian Indian community turned their backs on the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) and efforts to woo the community back to the BN fold fell on the MIC.

The party, however, has been struggling to achieve this aim, under the leadership of Palanivel.

Palanivel replaced S Samy Vellu who relinquished the presidency after the massive loss at the 2008 general election.

In the last election the party lost six out of the nine parliamentary seats it contested. Among the casualties were Samy Vellu and Palanivel.

Palanivel’s inability to rouse the Malaysian Indian community resulted in Prime Minister and BN chief Najib Tun Razak taking it upon himself to woo the community.

Najib, sensing the importance of Indian votes to remain in power, is a prominent face at all major Indian events.

Surveys conducted by several organisations showed that the Indian support for the BN is on a steady rise and that this was due to Najib’s efforts.