Kuala Lumpur – The guessing game has begun on who would be MIC’s nominee to become the next Dewan Negara (Malaysian Senate) speaker. Speculations are rife that the next Dewan Negara speaker would be from MIC.
Dewan Negara Speaker is also generally referred to as the President of Senate or Dewan Negara.
The position of Dewan Negara Speaker is rotated among the Barisan Nasional Component parties. MIC was given Dewan Negara’s Speaker’s position during the period 1992 to 1995.
Tan Sri Datuk G.Vadiveloo from MIC, then served as the Speaker of Dewan Negara from 13 April 1992 to 12 June 1995.
Since then, the post of Dewan Negara Speaker has been rotated among UMNO and MCA parties. Dewan Negara’s speaker generally holds the position for a period of 3 years. The current President of the Senate Abu Zahar Ujang’s term expires in July 2016 and the next speaker is expected to come from MIC.
5 MIC Senators – who will be the candidate for Senate President?
Currently, there are 5 Senators from MIC. They are Datuk S.A.Vigneswaran (Vice President of MIC), Datuk Jaspal Singh (Treasurer General of MIC), Datuk Gunasegaran (MIC Pahang State liaison Committee Chairman), Datuk V.Subramaniam (Barat Maniam) and Senator Sivapakiam.
Of the 5 Senators, two, namely Subramaniam and Sivapakiam are aligned to former MIC President Datuk Seri G.Palanivel and therefore they are unlikely to be considered by the current leadership of MIC for the coveted post.
Among the current Senators Vigneswaran and Jaspal Singh are said to be keen in becoming the next Senate President representing MIC.
Will it be Devamany?
However, MIC sources said at the end of the day it could be Datuk Seri S.K.Devamany who would be the next speaker of Dewan Negara. Given his experience as a backbencher MP and a former Deputy Minister in the BN government augurs well for him to be elevated as the next Speaker of Dewan Negara.
His vast experience gained as the Speaker of Perak State Assembly (a position he still holds) also puts him as the front runner for the Speaker’s post.
But there is one hurdle he has to cross! He is not a Senator yet!
MIC sources said this could be easily overcome as there is one Senate position allocation still pending for MIC. During the 2013 General Election, MIC President Palanivel gave up one state seat in Perak (Behrang) in favour of UMNO and it was announced then MIC would be given an additional Senate position in lieu of the state assembly seat. That Senate position has not been allocated to MIC yet.
MIC sources said, once this issue of MIC’s Senate allocation is sorted out with Prime Minister Najib, then the candidate for the Seante is likely to be Devamany as he is currently Deputy President of the Party. Since he is without any government position, he is likely to be the first choice in the event any government position is allocated to MIC.
Even if the issue of additional Senate for MIC is not solved with BN leadership, Devamany could still be appointed as a Senator and President of the Senate if his candidature for Dewan Negara Speaker is acceptable to Najib.
MIC sources pointed out that Devamany’s performance is personally known to Najib as the former has worked as a Deputy Minister in Prime Minister’s Department under Najib during the period 2008 to 2013.
MIC sources concluded there is a strong possibility that the current Perak State Assembly Speaker would soon be “shifting house” from Perak State Assembly Hall in Ipoh to the Malaysian Parliament house in Kuala Lumpur.
-R.Mutharasan
