By Malaysiakini
MIC President G Palanivel has made “dubious history” in being the first cabinet minister to obtain the post not by merit, but in a “most blatant ‘I help you, you help me’ barter” arrangement, said Lim Kit Siang.
Responding in a statement today on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s announcement of Palanivel’s ministership at MIC’s 65th AGM in Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) yesterday, the DAP veteran was scathing in what he called “the most cynical cabinet appointment ever made in Malaysian history under six prime ministers”
The DAP advisor and Ipoh Timor MP also pointed out that while Najib had cited his father Abdul Razak having two Indian minister, the difference, said Lim, could not be more different.
“In Razak’s time in 1976, MIC was in a position of strength but today in 2011 MIC is in position of unprecedented weakness,” said Lim.
He added that the appointment adds further strain to an already “over-bloated” cabinet.
“Palanivel’s ‘barter’ appointment, announced at the ‘don’t debate Interlok novel’ 65th MIC general assembly yesterday, will inflate an already over-bloated Cabinet and set (several) dubious records.”
First, said Lim, was that the Prime Minister’s Department will now has six ministers, or 20 percent of the cabinet strength.
Secondly, this represents the most number of senators in the cabinet the country has seen.
Lim said this has undermined the legitimacy of Najib’s cabinet and his “BN leaders first, Performance later” administration.
Think tank to uplift Indians?
Meanwhile Bernama reported that a delegate at MIC’s general assembly today appealed to the party’s leadership to form a think tank to come out with strategies to uplift the economy of the Indian community.
Batu division chairperson C Ramanathan said the group should not only comprise financial experts from MIC but outside experts from the Indian community as well.
“It is time that we shift our mindset towards economic upliftment of the Indian community as our first priority. Our economic equity is only 1.1 percent, it must be increased in stages to three percent, five percent or even higher.
“If it (think tank) can help increase our economic participation it will automatically solve a lot of problems on children’s education, unemployment, scholarships, social problems and others,” he said when debating the MIC president’s policy speech at the party AGM today.
Another delegate, Putrajaya division chairman SS Ganapathy said the time had come for small entrepreneurs from the community to go global and that one of the ways to do this was to opt for the franchising model.
A delegate, M Vickneswari, from the Shah Alam division, got a blasting from him when she urged the MIC leadership to form a special committee to chose MIC senators and candidates for the next election.
Telling the delegate to think before she spoke, Kumaran said, “Are you saying that our president (G Palanivel) is not qualified to choose (the candidates)?”
When another delegate called for Indians and Chinese to be recognised as “Anak Malaysia” (Children of Malaysia) just like bumiputera for Malays and other indigenous ethnic groups and not by their race, Kumaran said such an intention was good but reminded the delegate that just like their bumiputera counterparts, they too were born raised and would die in Malaysia.
#1 by Cinapek on Monday, 1 August 2011 - 11:39 am
“MIC President G Palanivel has made “dubious history” in being the first cabinet minister to obtain the post not by merit, but in a “most blatant ‘I help you, you help me’ barter” arrangement, said Lim Kit Siang….”
I am not Indian but if I am I would be most insulted to be treated like a commodity to be traded for someone’s benefit. More so when the trade is demanded as part of a ransom to get votes from the Indian community.
#2 by isahbiazhar on Monday, 1 August 2011 - 5:13 pm
MIC does not represent the Indians anymore.Only in the eyes of the UMNO, MIC means the Indians in Malaysia.Sami Velloo divided the Indians into Tamils and the others(Keralites,Telugus,Sikhs and others).He managed to be popular because he was the chief gangster of the Tamils.His behaviour from the time of Sambathan had been the typical Tamil of the low caste who could use all the foul languages of a drunkard Tamil in a toddy shop.It took him some time with the tutelage of Mahathir to grow up as a polished man but not as a leader.If one goes to a MIC or a MAIKA meeting one can see the typical behaviour of him potrayed by his gundas.This worked well till his carpet was pulled and made to stand on the earth as an ordinary man,He lost the election and that taught him a lesson when he cried in front of his relative;that is history.He was defeated but not totally as he had the best secrets of the country where the UMNO leaders were concerned.He came back because Najib could not successfully get rid of him.He got his political connection but minus the MIC.He played the game well and today Pallinivel has taken the place.Samy Velloo knows very well that as a leader he still has the support of the low caste(I am mentioning low caste because it is proven that it is his base(look into the wikileaks still to be released) he can still turn the table.Pallinivel played his card well and got Sami Velloo some form of honour.(I was told many had opposed to the knighthood).The MIC knows very well that for the next election Pallinivel is not the leader to lead to victory.Pallinivel knows even better and in the next few months will see him demanding from the government that will turn the heads of the UMNOs.Bumiputera status for the Indians born here and enjoying all the privileges enjoyed by the Malays.This will be impossible for the Malay dominated government to meet and that is where he will threaten the government that they will leave the coalition and join the opposition.Meanwhile the other Indian party,Pandithan party, will see the entry in to the coalition.This scenario is what we expect in the nearest future.When MIC leaves they will be followed by the MCA.These two parties will keep their identity only during the next election but after the victory they will be dissolved to join PKR as one big family.The existence of MCA and MIC will become a shameful part of the history where by joining UMNO they had allowed themselves to be used as part of the decline of the country and not to unite the races.MIC’s era will end in the next election and Najib knows very well that the decline of UMNO will have to start with the Indians as in the case of HIndraf in the last election and the MIC stab in the next election.
Malaysians should start thinking from now onwards as to how to unite the country not by races but how well a political party can contribute to the aspiration of a nation built on the pillars of freedom to express and live with other races as a nation.The rest will follow.