‘Shoot if you dare’, Saravanan tells death threat caller

MIC vice president is incensed at receiving death threats and having to deal with 20 gangsters who refused him entry into the MIC building.

VIDEO INSIDE

KUALA LUMPUR: MIC vice president M Saravanan received two death threats via phone this afternoon as he was speaking to reporters at the MIC headquarters in a bid “to tell the real story” behind the party’s long drawn out internal crisis.

Immediately putting the call on speaker, newsmen could hear for themselves the person at the other end delivering the death threats in Bahasa Malaysia, to which a defiant Saravanan said, “Shoot if you dare!”

Saravanan, who is also Deputy Youth and Sports Minister as well as Tapah MP, said the death threats were targeted at him and MIC deputy president S Subramaniam and were allegedly made from a pay-phone in Jalan Ipoh.

The drama unfolded this morning when Saravanan called for a “tell-all” press conference in which he claimed MIC President G Palanivel had violated the party constitution in replacing him as state chairman, which he said had led to the “sorry state of the party” today.

Saravanan, at the risk of bringing public disrepute and contempt on the party, further claimed that Palanivel wasn’t the choice of the members for the party’s post of presidency but that of the prime minister’s.

In his explanation, Saravanan said that while Palanivel was deputy president, he was made acting president with the resignation of Samy Vellu.

“For the following term, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak requested at a meeting at his residence, for one term for Palanivel. That’s why there was no contest,” Saravanan said.

Based on this turn of events, Saravanan appealed to Najib, who is also Barisan Nasional chief to help resolve MIC’s current dilemma.

“Now prime minister, we have a big problem in MIC, we kept him because he was your choice, he was not the choice of the members.

“So don’t push this away as another MIC problem, it will affect BN too,” Saravanan cautioned.

He also claimed that recently appointed secretary-general Kumar Aaman had hired “gangsters” to restrict access to the MIC building this morning, something for which Saravanan held Palanivel responsible for.

“If anything happens to me, it will be the fault of the president who had sent over 20 thugs just to stop us from entering the building that belongs to the MIC,” Saravanan claimed.

“What is wrong with you Palanivel?” he asked.

“Prime Minister, sir, do you know what has become of MIC?” he implored in expressing his great dismay and frustration at the antics being displayed by his party members who hired gangsters to threaten the others. He said that even the letter stating he was sacked was delivered to him by a group of gangsters.

The press conference was called by the MIC vice president this morning to explain his being replaced as state chairman, a move that in his opinion was unconstitutional.

He also read a statement calling for an emergency meeting of the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC), failing which he threatened to hold a big demonstration outside the MIC president’s house.

The morning’s commotion broke out between Saravanan and his supporters when they were confronted upon their arrival at the MIC headquarters by a group of 20 men who claimed to have been hired by Kumar as security for the building.

“This building belongs to MIC, not to Kumar or anyone else.

“Kumar has no right to issue such directives or even stop the party leaders from coming in. This is our house,” said the party’s Setiawangsa division head S Raja who was there in support of Saravanan.

Still on the issue of gangsters, Saravan said, “”MIC is destroyed today. Gangsters have entered MIC now. There’s no safety for MIC members, anymore.”

He also urged the party’s Youth Wing to take charge of the MIC building until a CWC meeting could be held to decide on security arrangements and to ensure that “gangsters” were kept out of MIC.

“The President cannot make unilateral decisions, ” he said.