Kuala Lumpur – It is estimated that there are about 300 MIC branches still remaining outside MIC, still supporting former MIC President Datuk Seri G.Palanivel and unwilling to take up the invitation extended to them on several occasions to return to the party.
There is still a handful of leaders sticking their guns with Palanivel and refusing to join MIC under the leadership of Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam.
However, political observers following the recent events in MIC claim that most of these 300-odd branch leaders have call it a day in MIC politics citing various personal reasons. They have lost interest and are refusing to join either of the faction.
However there are still a couple of leaders aligned to Palanivel who strongly feel that they can still play an effective role in Malaysian politics by remaining outside MIC.
These remaining MIC branch leaders calling themselves as ‘Palanivel faction’ are seriously considering their next course of political action since GE-14 is expected to be held in 2017. According to recent Tamil media reports, Palanivel’s faction has submitted an application to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to register a new political party, tentatively named “Malaysian Indian National Party” (MINP).
The approval from RoS is said to be still pending. There are also speculations that Palanivel’s faction may opt to join another BN component party possibly PPP or Gerakan if the RoS refuses to approve their application for the new political party.
Who will be the new leader of the party?
According to sources, since the departure of Datuk S.Sothinathan from Palanivel’s faction, former MIC Batu Division leader A.K.Ramalingam (pic) who has been aggressively leading the faction has been named as the President of the new party.
There is no official announcement from Palanivel whether he would be joining the new party or has endorsed its formation. However, media reports claimed that Palanivel would be the ‘Advisor” of the party.
Several Indian based parties are already in existence for many years but none has made any real political impact. They have been supporting Barisan Nasional but are unable to get direct admission as a component party in the BN structure due to objections from other BN component parties such as MIC and PPP.
In the given circumstances, with such a short period lying ahead of GE 14, it is doubtful whether the new party would be able to make any political inroads among Indian voters who are already split between MIC-BN and Pakatan coalition.
BN or Pakatan? which way to go?
With almost every Indian based party throwing their support behind BN, it is doubtful whether BN would value the support of another newly formed Indian based party such as MINP.
The forthcoming GE-14 is all about scrambling for Malay votes and the Pakatan Harapan is more concerned about Malay votes as they feel they can get enough of Indian support through DAP and PKR, which usually fields about 10 Indian candidates in their respective parliamentary constituencies.
The Indian politicians from DAP and PKR are carefully guarding their opposition Indian support base and are determined not to allow any ‘outside Indian political forces’ to come into Pakatan Harapan to erode their own political power base.
Mahathir’s new party Bersatu is more concerned about capturing the Malay votes and UMNO dissidents and is least interested in Indian voters. Bersatu has left it to PKR and DAP to handle the Indian voters and prefers to concentrate on Malay votes, which would ultimately determine the outcome of GE-14.
Meanwhile, MIC President Dr S.Subramaniam has announced that the party would be gearing up for polls with Indian unity as the guiding theme. MIC’s CWC has already appointed working committees in the electoral constituencies likely to be contested by the party.
With these emerging political scenarios, how another new Indian political party, MINP, would fare and create and impact?
Let’s wait and see!
-R.Mutharasan
