Total silence from MIC’s top two

It has been a week since the MIC elections but the president and deputy president are still silent on various allegations of irregularities.

PETALING JAYA: MIC president G Palanivel and his deputy Dr S Subramaniam continue to play the silent game despite numerous allegations of irregularities at the recently concluded MIC elections.

The party chief and his deputy have yet to make any public statements in the wake of increasing allegations of wrong-doings at the polls.

More than a week after the polls, held to pick three vice presidents and 23 central working committee members, Palanivel and Subramaniam’s silence is leading the party to uncertainty.

“We do not even know if the elections are valid. With all the allegations of abuse, some candidates have sought assistance of the Registrar of Societies. Some have filed appeals for re-election. The party election committee is also mum on the whole fiasco.

“Palanivel or Dr Subramaniam must come out and announce something. Keeping silent on a major issue like this is killing the party…if they love this party they should clear the air once and for all,” said a defeated vice-president candidate.

FMT had attempted to set interviews with the newly elected vice-president line up made up of former Teluk Kemang member of parliament S Sothinathan, Youth and Sports deputy minister M Saravanan and Johor Baharu MIC division chief KS Balakrishnan.

One of the three initially agreed to the interview but late yesterday wanted it postponed as he was not sure if the polls were valid based on the number of appeals for re-election.

“It would not look nice if I give an interview only for the party to decide on a re-election. I would look stupid. The leadership must either affirm the results or have a re-election. Both the president and deputy are silent.

“Palanivel has not even appointed the secretary general, treasurer general and the party information chief. This has further fueled speculation that we are heading for another round of voting,” he told FMT.

A total eight candidates contested for the three veep positions while 88 candidates fought it out for the 23 central working committee posts. The vice president election results were delayed as the votes cast did not match the number of votes attained by the candidates. The CWC polls was no better.

This led to candidates accusing “some leaders” of trying to manipulate the polls. There has also been calls for Palanivel to make his stand clear on the polls as his deafening silence is causing uncertainty in the largest Indian based political party in the country.

What is the peace plan?

Prior to the elections, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had presided over a peace plan in the party. The plan was agreed upon by Palanivel, Dr Subramaniam, incumbent vice presidents Saravanan and SK Devamany.

Although, the plan was not revealed to party members, it was understood that the plan ensured Palanivel and Dr Subramaniam retained their positions uncontested.

The plan also ensured that Palanivel holds the reign of the party until August 2016 and Dr Subramaniam to lead MIC into the next general election, slatted for 2018.

Another part of the plan was that Palanivel and Subramaniam endorse Saravanan and Devamany in the vice-president race in the just concluded polls.

However, this part of the plan was never kept by Palanivel.

The party president had allegedly put up a list of his ‘preferred’ vice president candidates prior to last week’s election. A Tamil daily aligned to Palanivel had splashed a front page report just a week before the polls with photographs of four leaders — Sothinathan, MIC treasurer general Jaspal Singh, Balakrishnan and former Youth chief SA Vigneswaran — as the president’s preferred candidate.

Palanivel neither confirmed nor denied the report. Vice president candidates had cried foul over the president’s move to endorse certain candidates.

The biggest loser in the whole fiasco appears to be Devamany, the Perak state legislative speaker, who lost the veep race.

It is still unclear if Devamany will come out in the open to announce details of the deal clinched in the presence of Najib and shame the party president for employing underhand tactics in the whole matter.

So far, he is keeping mum and sources say it is the right of members and delegates who voted at the assembly to know details of the peace deal.

While, the momentum for a re-election is starting to gather speed, silence on the part of the leaders will only pull the party down further.

At a time when MIC needs to galvanise Indian support for the ruling Barisan Nasional, leaders behaving like an ostrich burying its head in the sand at first sign of trouble is not going to help.