KULIM, Jan 4 — Seven out of the 12 MIC divisions in Kedah today called on MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel to stick to the decision made by the party at a meeting last Dec 18 to resolve its internal crisis.
Their spokesman S. Ananthan, who is also MIC Kulim/Bandar Baharu chief, said the president must act firmly and urgently along with his deputy Datuk Dr S.Subramaniam to resolve the party’s problem with the Registrar of Societies (ROS).
“The president by right should keep the pledges made at the Dec 18 meeting to resolve the issue with ROS, not appoint new members to the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC),” he told Bernama here today.
On Dec 5, ROS had officially notified the MIC that its polls for the vice-president and CWC seats as well as some divisional elections were null and void due to certain irregularities and ordered the party to hold fresh polls for the said seats within 90 days.
At the Dec 18 meeting, Palanivel had said that he would deal with the matter as best as possible and form a special committee made up of himself and Dr Subramaniam, the five members who lodged complaints about irregularities in the party polls and five others, in trying to resolve it.
Ananthan said the leaders from the seven divisions feared the party could be deregistered if Palanivel did not follow ROS’s instructions for MIC to hold the fresh elections.
Present with him were division chiefs Arumugam Ariman (Merbok); M.Varatharajoo (Pokok Sena); M.Sinnapan (Kuala Kedah); R.Subramaniam (Jerai); S.Ganesan (Pendang ) and Datuk DrJoginder Singh (Sungai Petani division vice-head).
Yesterday, Palanivel in an e-mailed statement had announced that MIC Secretary-General A.Prakash Rao had been replaced by Datuk Kumar Silambaram.
He also announced that Ramalingam Krishnamoorthy has been appointed as the new Strategic Director of MIC replacing Datuk Seri Vell Paari, the son of former party supremo, Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu who handpicked Palanivel as his successor.
He also appointed three new members to the CWC. They are Karuppanan Malairaja (Penang), Datuk Ganesan Subramaniam (Kedah) and Ganesan Thankaveloo (Selangor).
They will be taking over from Tan Sri K.S Nijhar, Datuk R. Ramanan and Datuk K.S Balakrishnan.
In PENANG, four of the 13 MIC divisions in the state echoed the same.
Bayan Baru division chief Datuk M. Nyanasegaran, speaking to reporters on the behalf in Butterworth, said the top leadership of the party must “save the party” from being deregistered.
“This is not a time for making changes to the office bearers (new CWC appointments) but to resolve the crisis the party is facing,” he said.
He also urged Palanivel and Dr Subramaniam to update members on the status of the fresh polls.
Present with him were division chiefs R. Kamalraj (Nibong Tebal), M.Suresh (Permatang Pauh) and P.Arumugam (Balik Pulau).
— BERNAMA
