Kuala Lumpur, Aug 6 – “In today’s modern era where financial strength is the basis of survival, the MIC leadership must initiate aggressive schemes to provide financial support to the ailing MIC divisions, failing which the party would collapse further in the near future” warned a Central Working Committee member of the party.
In a press statement, Dato Henry Benedict Asirvatham, who is also the Treasurer for MIC Penang State Congress and Chairman of MIC Bagan Division in Penang said he would bring this matter to the next CWC meeting and would forward his suggestions and proposals.
“During the last few months I have been attending MIC State Congress annual delegates meetings throughout the country and the common view expressed by the division leaders is that they lack financial support to carry out political and social activities and to reach out to Indian voters” said Henry.
Devise financial aid for MIC Divisions
Comparing the financial strength of other component parties of BN like UMNO, MCA and Gerakan Henry pointed out that these parties have developed a financial structure with the aim of helping out their respective divisions.
“In UMNO almost every division leader is either a MP or a state assemblyman. Those who don’t make it as elected representatives are given lucrative appointments in GLCs and government statutory bodies. It is also no secret that they are also able negotiate and conclude lucrative business deals with their Bumiputra status. Furthermore, all the UMNO ministers including the PM and DPM ensure that the UMNO division leaders are ‘well taken care’ politically. All these put together enable UMNO divisions to carry out programs and initiatives for the betterment of their party and community” Henry said.
“As for MCA and Gerakan, most of the division leaders are businessmen who are financially strong. The Chinese community directly or indirectly donates generously when social initiatives are undertaken such as constructing Chinese schools and improving infrastructure. For MCA, its educational initiative TAR College and other business ventures such as Star newspaper and its multi-story Headquarters building generates millions of ringgit as revenue which helps to support the party’s activities” Henry noted.
Where is the revenue from AIMST and TAFE College?
In this regard Henry reminded the party leadership that MIC’s educational ventures like AIMST and TAFE college are doing extremely well generating millions of ringgit as revenue. These institutions were created with party’s support and donations from MIC branches and also from funds allocated by the government for the betterment of the Indian Community.
“Therefore, MIC should receive a portion of these revenues for party’s activities. We want to know how much of the revenue earned by AIMST and TAFE are repatriated to MIC, the very party which was responsible for these institutions to be created?” asked Henry.
“In comparison with fellow BN Component party divisions, the MIC leaders who succeed as division leaders may be politically savvy but they are not financially strong. The needs of the community are also varied and demands are high. The government is also not coming up with enough social reforms for the community and so the MIC divisions are left with the gigantic task of attending to the needs of the community and organizing social and political initiatives, simultaneously carrying the burden of convincing the Indians to vote for BN in the awake of rising support for opposition parties. Our task becomes especially difficult in states like Penang and Selangor which are controlled by opposition, as we do not have many BN elected representatives to provide funding. For every function we have to seek financial support and donations from others or we have to simply drop the idea of organizing one.”
Henry warned that if this trend continues, in future the party would simply lose its political significance and may disappear from Malaysian political scene. Failure of MIC would also greatly affect the performance of UMNO and other BN candidates in the next general election, Henry further warned.
“Therefore MIC and its two Cabinet Ministers should propose to Barisan Nasional to devise some financial schemes to generate funds to help MIC divisions to undertake activities. If this is not done as early as possible, MIC division leaders may become frustrated and may get worn out and in the process the party’s structure would collapse. MIC is doomed to fail if immediate action is not taken by the party’s leadership to provide financial support to the divisions.” Henry concluded in his press statement.
