Kuala Lumpur, Jan 8 – Three former contestants of MIC elections held on 30th November 2013 have jointly made a statement in reply to the comments made by the party President Dato Seri G.Palanivel on RoS fiasco.
They said “We are also shocked that the MIC President is still in a denial stage unwilling to accept ROS investigation that found numerous irregularities in the MIC elections conducted in the year 2013 but rather continue blaming the losers as minorities who are dissatisfied in a democratically held election thus causing the Party to be in this situation with ROS”.
All three of them Dato S.Vigneswaran, Dato Jaspal Singh and Dato T.Mohan, contested for Vice Presidency in the 2013 elections but lost.
Dato Jaspal, who was also former Treasurer General of MIC, also said “I contested for the VP position in the 2013 election. In the original count I was declared as one of the winner. Subsequently I was called back for a recount. I lost. I insisted that the ballot papers be recounted. I was shocked that the ballot in the recount has increased by a substantial amount. I protested immediately. However the election committee ignored it.”
Senator Datuk S. Vignewaran added “Most of us made an appeal application addressed to the Secretary General asking for an independent committee to be formed to conduct a full inquiry. Our request and appeal was rejected by the CWC without any reason. How can the very CWC who’s standing is being questioned was asked to decide on our appeal . Is that truly democratic as mentioned by the President? Democratic process is not limited only to the right to vote. For the practice of true democracy, election must be free, fair, transparent and independent. It is quite unfortunate that the MIC elections in 2013 fails to be transparent and independent. There were numerous issues with the MIC elections that have caused us to arrive to this juncture. Amongst them are allegedly deceased or bankrupt delegates voting, defunct branches taking part in the election process, members added in the 11th hour, new branches formed in an election year, wrong calculation of total number of eligible delegates etc”
Datuk T.Mohan commented as follows in the joint statement “ The ROS is an independent statutory body that governs all societies in Malaysia. It’s a body that polices the wrong doing of a registered society. After one year of investigation which includes numerous visits to MIC HQ , ROS informed MIC that ROS has concluded that the election held in NOV 2013 for the post of 3 Vice President and 23 CWC members is not valid. In addition ROS is also unable to accept the election of office bearers at a number of division and branches. ROS has also indicated some of the reasons as mentioned above by Senator Datuk S. Vigneswaran. May I remind Palanivel that he was the returning officer for the November 2013 elections. Rather than establishing a panel to investigate what caused the discrepancies in the election , Palanivel chooses to blames us as minorities who are dissatisfied and claims that has caused the problem with ROS. Is Palanivel sending a message that ROS, a statutory body by the Malaysian Government is not credible? I am sure he realizes that he is very much part of the government “
Senator Datuk S. Vigneswaran further added “The root of the problem is that there exist individuals who are prepared to manipulate to remain in power. This power crazy people are the ones who are self-centered willing to do anything for their own personal glory. We the complainants are victims of these manipulation and fraud . We took this stand to voice-out not for personal glory but to ensure that true democracy returns to MIC. We want to be the people who bring change to the party. How can we win the hearts of our community when our own election is tainted with fraud? “
Senator Jaspal further commented, “ All we are asking is for a free, fair and transparent election. We are not asking for a position. ROS has already made a decision. Why is the President still denying that there exist irregularities in the NOV 2013 election always stating that the ballot papers were counted many times while the issue is not how many times you count the ballot paper but why the increase in number of eligible ballots papers.”
T Mohan further added “ who is the President trying to protect or is it difficult for him to swallow that he has failed in his duties as the returning officer. I want to clarify that we are the innocent ones. The ROS has confirmed with clarity that MIC election is tainted with irregularities. Whoever caused these irregularities has brought the party to this stage. The President must address this issue”
