Ramasamy not worried about Indian 'mosquito' parties joining BN

 

DAP's Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy has dismissed the prospect of smaller Indian parties such as the Indian Progressive Party (IPF), Makkal Sakthi (MS), Malaysian Indian United Party (Miup), and Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma) joining BN as inconsequential.

He said if the coalition's Indian component MIC did not have the support of the Indian community, "what can we expect from the minor or mosquito Indian parties?"

"Minor Indian political parties like these were waiting too long on the sidelines and in the wilderness to be accepted within the fold of BN.

"In fact, it was the MIC that is primarily responsible for not allowing these political parties within BN's," Ramasamy said in a statement today.

He was commenting on reports that the four minor parties and the multi-racial Parti Cinta Malaysia held a meeting recently with BN deputy chairperson Mohamad Hasan, and were hopeful of joining the coalition, even as the MIC expressed its keenness to support the leadership of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and work with the latter's Bersatu party.

"Ironically, these (Indian) parties were formed in the past due to certain irreconcilable differences with the MIC leadership.

"Most of their leaders were one-time MIC members and some even held positions in the party.

"These mosquito parties with hardly any grassroots support have been trying their best over the years to get admitted into BN; the coalition that ruled the country for 61 years," Ramasamy added. 

He highlighted that given the differences between Bersatu and Umno in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, there is a possibility Umno might break ranks with Bersatu before the next general election and that MIC, unlike Umno, has not given indication that it would follow suit.

"The apparent difference between Umno and MIC has been seized by these minor Indian parties claiming loudly that they will be loyal to BN.

Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy

"But the MIC desertion from BN might not make any difference in getting Indian support through the efforts of these parties.

"The desire to get into BN is so intense that these parties are willing to make the preposterous claim they can mobilise Indian support without the presence of MIC in BN," Ramasamy said. 

He claimed that MIC has lost much of its Indian support over the years by being too subservient to Umno and that many Indians regard the MIC as a "yes-man" party that has no vision for the development of the Indian community which are mainly members of the working class.

"In fact, in the last three elections, Indians by and large deserted the MIC to support multi-racial political parties such as DAP and PKR.

"There are no visible indications that Indians are going to desert both these parties in Pakatan Harapan to come back to the MIC or the minor Indian parties.

"Even if these parties combine their strength, they would hardly make any meaningful impact on Indian voters in the country, he added. - Mkini