MIC dumps Palanivel, makes Subra acting president

Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam says he is now MIC's acting president. – The Malaysian Insider pic, June 16, 2015.

Datuk Seri G. Palanivel is no longer MIC president after losing his party membership automatically, making Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam the acting president, the party's central working committee (CWC) ruled today.

This comes hours after Palanivel issued a press statement announcing the 12-month suspensions of Subramaniam and 13 others for holding the CWC meeting today, which he said was illegal.

Palanivel lost his membership the moment he dragged the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to court without the party's approval, Subramaniam announced in a press conference today.

This apparently had already been informed to the Barisan Nasional leadership in March this year.

The current CWC is the 2009 CWC tasked by RoS to conduct re-elections for the party.

Palanivel, who still considers himself president, has refused to recognise orders by ROS to allow fresh polls and has decided to stick with the 2013 leadership, whose election in November that year is  heavily disputed.

"This decision was made as far back as March but we didn't want to raise the issue before," Subramaniam said today, adding that he had to now clarify the matter because Palanivel had continued to make decisions as party president.

"We don't recognise his orders," Subramaniam, who is also the Health Minister, said.

He said that along with Palanivel, the four other MIC members who also filed the judicial review against the ROS action have also ceased to be members.

"We even referred the matter to two legal firms and both have confirmed that this is the case," he added.

"We were told we need not inform the individuals about the decision, as it is automatic."

Subramaniam also announced fresh party elections, to commence with branch elections in mid-July and all posts, including elections for the president post, will conclude by October.

"But first we need to write a letter to ROS because the initial deadline given to us to conduct elections has lapsed," he said.

"They can deregister us anytime now if they wish to do so," he added.

MIC's bid to hold re-elections according to ROS orders were hampered by Palanivel's court case against the body.

But the High Court yesterday dismissed Palanivel's judicial review application with costs, after finding that ROS had acted reasonably during the MIC crisis.

The leadership tussle stretched back to 2013 when the party elections were tainted with allegations of unregistered delegates and other irregularities.

Palanivel earlier today had tried to stop today's CWC meeting by suspending the party memberships of those against him. He said he had powers as president to do so.

- TMI