MACC report against Palani over ‘goodwill payment’

A party branch chairman claims that the MIC president allegedly offered inducement to party branch leaders in the run-up to the party presidential election.

PETALING JAYA: An MIC branch chairman wants the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate party president G Palanivel for allegedly distributing “goodwill money” for the work done during the general election.

MIC’s SS2 Tengah branch chairman S Padnmanagan, in a report lodged at the MACC headquarters at its Putrajaya headquarters on July 2, wants the MACC to initiate a through probe on the matter.

He claimed that the payment was in actual fact paid to gain favour from party branch chairmen for the party’s presidential election later this year.

Speaking to FMT today, Padnmanagan said he received a letter dated June 5, signed by Palanivel, thanking all MIC chairmen for supporting MIC and other BN candidates in the general election.

In the same letter, Palanivel also revealed that he paid all MIC branch chairman RM750, which was used for food and other expenses.

“As MIC party president, I would like to thank all the branch chairmen who worked so hard for MIC and BN,” Palanivel had said in his letter.

But Padnmanagan suspects something is not right with the payment.

“There is something fishy about this. The money was disbursed secretly. There was no official announcement on it. Why this secrecy? Where did the money come from? We have 3,988 branches nationwide. This works up to nearly RM3 million.

“Everyone knows that this is an election year for the party. And the party president is picked by the branch chairmen. We are expecting contest for the top post. Thus, any kind of donation or goodwill money can be considered as a bribe to gain support.”

Another issue raised by Padnmanagan was that Palanivel’s letter was not sent on the party’s letterhead although it was a party matter.

Unlike other official letters, where the president uses the official MIC letterhead which contains address of the party headquarters, office telephone number and MIC e-mail address, this letter has a residential house address, his mobile number and personal e-mail address.

“Another fact is that only certain branches received the RM750 stated in the letter. For example, there are 22 branches in my division. Out of the total, four branch chairmen were left out including myself.

“It is clear that the money is for the election but to buy votes of branch chairmen taking into account the party presidential election which would be held in two months,” he added.

He also claimed that all branch chairmen received RM500 on May 1 and the remainder RM250 on May 12, a week after the general election.

“We want MACC to investigate the matter before the presidential election scheduled for Sept 22,” he added.

Meanwhile when contacted MIC secretary general A Sakthivel said he would need to check with Palanivel first before commenting on the matter.

“This happened before I was appointed the sec-gen. Let me check first,” he said.

Another MIC leader however said there was nothing sinister in the payment made to the branch chairmen. “As the letter states, the money is for the work done during the GE campaign period,” he said.