Petaling Jaya, Jan 30 – The widespread criticism against the MIC President G Palanivel over his leadership style has put the party in a dilemma.
And it is not only the Malaysian Indians in general that have criticised him for his ‘silence is golden’ stand but also members from his own party.
In reality many MIC members are of the opinion that he should step down as the president after losing his voice within the federal government and at party level too.
“He should make way for his deputy Dr S Subramaniam for the sake of the party which is already divided into two camps,’ said a party insider.
In remaining anonymous, the party’s former central working committee (CWC) member stressed that Palanivel is too weak to handle MIC, the nation’s largest Indian-based party.
“He just do not care about the party since he took over the leadership from former president S Samy Vellu,” he told FMT.
“On numerous occasions, he put his own interest above the party’s benefit.
He also said that the CWC meetings chaired by Palanivel were just for namesake instead a forum to discuss the community’s woes.
“He just never listens to any ideas which are brought up in the CWC meetings,” he said.
“For example, during the 13th general-election, the party’s CWC gave a mandate to Palanivel not to give up any parliament or state assembly seat to BN component parties,” he said.
“However, Palanivel overruled the mandate by letting Umno grab two state assembly seats belonging to the Perak MIC, and in return the party was awarded an extra senatorship post,” he added.
Later, MCA allocated one of their state seat (Jelapang) ‘on loan’ to MIC, but MIC lost all their state seats it contested.
“During another CWC meeting, Palanivel shot down a proposal by S Vell Paari, who suggested the candidates in Penang.”
According to him, during the meeting Vell Paari had suggested the former youth treasurer J Dheenagaran and incumbent CWC member Henry Benedict Aasirvaatham be given the opportunity to contest under the BN banner in Bagan Dalam and Perai state seat respectively.
“Vell Paari also said that by fielding both the leaders it would give a tough fight to DAP.”
“However, Palanivel immediately dismissed his suggestion by claiming that MIC should not ‘disturb’ the DAP in Penang.”
“We, the CWC members, were shocked when Palanivel said DAP is doing an excellent job in Penang and let them remain in power,” added the former CWC member.
“Worse still, Palanivel added that he is a close friend of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Deputy Chief Minister (II) P Ramasamy. Thus, it is unprofessional for him to put strong candidates in Penang,” he added.
Contacted later, Vell Paari confirmed with FMT that his suggestion was turned down by Palanivel.
“I cannot remember which CWC meeting. But, I still remember that he rejected my view by saying that MIC should not disturb DAP in Penang,” said Vell Paari.
-FreeMalaysiaToday
