Mind your business, MIC chief tells Ramasamy

Cameron Highlands has traditionally been held by MIC. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: MIC president S Vigneswaran has hit back at Penang Deputy Chief Minister P Ramasamy over the latter’s claim that MIC is a spent force and no longer relevant, following the party’s decision to yield its Port Dickson parliamentary seat to Umno in last year’s by-election.

There is also talk that MIC may give up the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat in the by-election on Jan 26.

Speaking to FMT, Vigneswaran said Ramasamy, the DAP assemblyman for Prai, had no business meddling in MIC affairs.

The Dewan Negara president also urged Ramasamy and other Penang Indians to learn a lesson from the results of the state DAP election. He said no Indian was elected to the Penang DAP committee, which reflected the type of party they were in.

(Jagdeep Singh Deo was elected to the state DAP leadership, although Ramasamy was not.)

“At least MIC has a place for the Indians,” Vigneswaran said. “Unfortunately, DAP does not.

“So, coming from a man who got defeated in party elections, and who cannot even hold his position in his party, this comes to me as a joke.

“I would like to say this to the deputy chief minister: don’t worry about us.”

Vigneswaran was asked to respond to a letter from Ramasamy published by FMT in which he said an obituary might be in order for MIC if it could “just give up two parliamentary seats to Umno”.

Ramasamy also said MIC had lost its role due to leadership issues, not so much its ethnic representation. He claimed the leadership had, over time, become alienated from rank and file by its dependence on Umno.

“MIC’s days are over. Perhaps the time has come to not reminisce over the good old days of the party, but to consider how and in what ways the future political representation of Indians as Malaysians should proceed.

“Nobody could have anticipated that the cool and serene hills of Cameron Highlands would signal the political oblivion of a party that once modelled itself after the Congress party of India,” Ramasamy had said.

Vigneswaran said MIC was well aware of its position as part of the new opposition bloc, and that it was learning its lesson after losing in the May 9 general election.

“We know where we stand at the moment,” he said. “Do not come and preach.”

He also took aim at DAP for even considering contesting in Cameron Highlands, calling it a shame.

“The Pakatan Harapan (PH) manifesto has been declared null and void by the same people who constructed it. The people who wrote it have decided that they are not going to keep their word.

“So with what audacity are they coming to Cameron Highlands, and what promises are they going to give further, when the promises they made earlier are as good as nothing? It will all be more lies.”

PH recently announced that DAP’s M Manogaran would be fielded for the Cameron Highlands by-election, which was triggered after the Election Court annulled C Sivarraajh’s victory in the May 9 polls.

The court found that money was used during the campaign to buy votes.

Sivarraajh, who is MIC vice-president, said he would not challenge the Election Court’s decision, and that Barisan Nasional (BN) would rather fight for the cause of the people in a by-election than go to the Federal Court.

Cameron Highlands has traditionally been an MIC seat. Sivarraajh won the constituency last year with a 567-vote majority.

When asked to confirm whether MIC was contesting the seat, Vigneswaran dodged the question, saying that was not the issue at hand.

“It is whether these people have any moral legitimacy to come and tell us whether we should or should not stand.

“The fact is this: MIC at the moment is recalibrating itself and its position in BN, and telling BN how it must go forward.

“We have lost three by-elections. The people in the country need a strong opposition. It is not to say those in power will commit any wrongdoing. It is about checks and balances, so that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated,” he said.

He added that MIC contesting the seat on grounds that it was traditionally held by the party would not guarantee a win for BN in the by-election. He said they needed to do what was strategically necessary and the most prudent thing for the time being.

On DAP fielding the same person who had lost in last year’s general election, Vigneswaran said it was the party’s decision to make.

“I don’t play politics like these people do. I don’t cast aspersions. A person can lose twice. Lim Kit Siang has lost twice.

“Many from the opposition have lost. If the party thinks he can win, he can win. The fact is very simple, they are expecting MIC to contest. We shall see.

“Who is now learning their lesson? We are. Yes, there were wrongdoings, arrogance, so many things that can be said. (But) we have come to accept these criticisms constructively and move on,” he said. - FMT