PETALING JAYA, MAY 31- Embattled MIC president G Palanivel is planning to purge those who are against him and his men from the party and the show-cause letter issued to six and the expulsion of one member on Wednesday was the first strike, said a source.
MIC sacked party member T Alagu for contesting in the recent general election as an independent against Palanivel in Cameron Highlands.
The disciplinary committee issued show cause letters to six others including three division chairmen for allegedly sabotaging Barisan Nasional in the polls.
The three division chairmen were RS Maniam (Kota Raja division), G Jeyakumar (Gombak division) and M Veloo (Teluk Kemang division).
The remaining three suspended members were TH Subra (deputy chairman of Sungai Petani), S Kalimuthu (Tasek Permai Baru branch chairman) and S Ramesh Kumar, an ordinary member from Mersing Kiri branch.
However, the party insider claimed that the action was not related to the general election but rather internal politics.
“There are several aspects in this matter clearly showing that Palanivel is on the verge of strengthening his position for the presidential election which is expected to be held next year,” said the MIC leader who wished to remain anonymous.
According to him, despite the disciplinary committee receiving 30 complaints, none of the cases were referred to the Central Working Committee (CWC) during its meeting last week.
“This is something unusual in MIC. Normally, the CWC members will be notified if there is any disciplinary action against party members,” he added.
“The question now is why the CWC members were not informed over the action against the three division chairmen?” he asked.
The source also pointed that the disciplinary action against RS Maniam was unfathomable since there were no complaints from MIC candidates.
“So who lodged the complaint and what is it about?” he asked.
Internal politics
The party insider also claimed that the decision to send show a cause letter to RS Maniam was because of his call on the party leadership to hold party elections soon as it risks being deregistered by the Registrar or Societies if it continues to delay the polls.
“The top leadership already ‘kicked-off’ their election machinery for the presidential election. And the disciplinary action was part of it,” he said.
He added that the action against Kalimuthu from Ampang was another “suspicious” decision by the disciplinary committee.
“Kalimuthu has no room to sabotage MIC candidates, since there were no MIC candidates contesting in Ampang,” he said.
“We believe the party leadership tried to axe him from the party after the latter was keen to contest in the MIC division election. And the incumbent Ampang division chairman P Wilson is a close ally of the party president,” he added.
The source claimed that the remaining four members were also “victimised” for the interest of certain party warlords.
He also slammed the disciplinary committee for failing to act against Senator V Subramaniam who is better known as Barat Maniam.
MIC vice-president M Saravanan had filed a report against Barat Maniam, who is close to Palanivel, for his criticism against him.
The MIC source also said that more show cause letters would be issued.
