May 25 — Will the Gerakan Anti-Samy Vellu or GAS movement launched by former MIC deputy chief V. Mugilan and supported openly by some and silently by many, see the end of veteran MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu?It might not, but there is no turning the clock back for Samy Vellu.
His days are numbered and his empire — built on fear, punishment and promise of reward — is beginning to crumble.GAS, might not be able to force Samy Vellu,74, to step down but the rebellion will not permit him or his son Vel Paari or his successor, whoever that is, to rule in comfort or with impunity, as has been the case all these years.
The MIC has been thrown into turmoil after four young MIC leaders, three of them elected and enjoying widespread grassroots support, urged the 74-year-old party president to step down immediately and not carry on until his term expires in 2012.They launched the GAS movement which will hold its inaugural gathering, expected to be a mammoth event, at 2pm, at the PWTC on Sunday.Samy Vellu responded in a manner confirming his dictatorial tendencies — he summarily expelled all four leaders and deployed his son Vel Paari to defend him when other top leaders were unwilling to defend him to the hilt.
They mouthed some platitudes but were unwilling to stand by him, swing the sword and draw blood for the embattled, veteran leader who had promised to stepped down first in 2006 and then repeated the same promise at least a dozen times.Paari, who was only appointed as a CWC member by his father last week, has fired salvoes on his father’s behalf, assuring party members the rebels were worthless, greedy and motivated by failures.Although not enjoying legitimacy as an elected leader, Paari was quick to speak for the party, his father and the future.He first blamed the Samy Vellu family’s arch rival Datuk S. Subramaniam as the man behind the rebellion against his father.
When Subramaniam threatened to sue him, Paari shifted blame to “MIC insiders” and finally as the rebellion gained momentum, he blamed Umno.He did not blame himself, his father and their cronies who fill all the top posts in the MIC for decades.Before Mugilan came into the picture, Samy Vellu and his son were already grappling with businessmen and CWC members K. P. Samy, Kumar Amman and P. Palaniappan, who wanted to know what the government had given and how these were distributed to the Indian community.Samy Vellu, they claimed, had used the government’s largesse to build a private empire to propagate his rule in the MIC and Indian community long after he retires.
That’s why the rebels have asked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to intervene and check whether the allocation had been properly distributed.“We want to know who is occupying these positions and whether they benefit the Indian community or serve the interest of the Samy Vellu family,” Mugilan said.
These questions have never been asked in the MIC but are now being asked and come as unprecedented revelations to both MIC members, the government and to Malaysians.“There is a need for a Royal Commission to probe Samy Vellu and all his actions and decisions both in the MIC and the government,” said Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran.
“I will be moving such a motion in Parliament.”The GAS movement should be seen in this light, as a struggle to make an era accountable to the people.They welcomed Samy Vellu’s arrival and gave him RM106 million in cash, a princely sum, to start Maika Holdings and realise their dream to lift themselves out of poverty.But that experiment failed miserably and no accounting has been offered on how the money was used or misused.The government is only interested in paying off shareholders and closing the book on Maika Holdings. It is not keen to make anybody accountable for this tragedy.
“GAS wants to make Samy Vellu answerable for Maika and other failures,” Mugilan said. “I am not alone in wanting an accounting from his family. All Malaysians have a right to this.”GAS has a few things going for it - mass support from the Indian working class who have already rejected Samy Vellu and his divisive methods many years before, and strong support from key individuals in the Indian community.These include his rival, Subramaniam, who has called on Samy Vellu to step down and has given unequivocal support to the GAS movement.This means that nearly one-third of the MIC, which is Subramanian’s support level in the party, will throw its weight behind GAS. And these include CWC members, delegates and branch chairmen.
All that is needed is for these forces to come together in a triggering event that could be the GAS movement.Datuk Vyran T Raj, a leader of the Tamil working class, also gave his support and endorsed the GAS movement and the significance of this is that the IPF and its various factions have now been given the green light to back GAS.GAS could be like an IPF which started in 1989 as the Naad Pani Mandram or Goodwill Societies and later coalesced into the Indian Progressive Front which joined with the Gagasan Rakyat movement led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.IPF and its leader, the late Tan Sri M. G. Pandithan, were instrumental in securing Indian working class support for the Gagasan Rakyat which came close to unseating the Barisan Nasional then led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
GAS has the potential to be another IPF as it is able to gather all the anti-Samy Vellu forces under one roof but the irony is while IPF was against anti-Samy Vellu and anti-BN, GAS is also anti-Samy Vellu but for BN.
Source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com
His days are numbered and his empire — built on fear, punishment and promise of reward — is beginning to crumble.GAS, might not be able to force Samy Vellu,74, to step down but the rebellion will not permit him or his son Vel Paari or his successor, whoever that is, to rule in comfort or with impunity, as has been the case all these years.
The MIC has been thrown into turmoil after four young MIC leaders, three of them elected and enjoying widespread grassroots support, urged the 74-year-old party president to step down immediately and not carry on until his term expires in 2012.They launched the GAS movement which will hold its inaugural gathering, expected to be a mammoth event, at 2pm, at the PWTC on Sunday.Samy Vellu responded in a manner confirming his dictatorial tendencies — he summarily expelled all four leaders and deployed his son Vel Paari to defend him when other top leaders were unwilling to defend him to the hilt.
They mouthed some platitudes but were unwilling to stand by him, swing the sword and draw blood for the embattled, veteran leader who had promised to stepped down first in 2006 and then repeated the same promise at least a dozen times.Paari, who was only appointed as a CWC member by his father last week, has fired salvoes on his father’s behalf, assuring party members the rebels were worthless, greedy and motivated by failures.Although not enjoying legitimacy as an elected leader, Paari was quick to speak for the party, his father and the future.He first blamed the Samy Vellu family’s arch rival Datuk S. Subramaniam as the man behind the rebellion against his father.
When Subramaniam threatened to sue him, Paari shifted blame to “MIC insiders” and finally as the rebellion gained momentum, he blamed Umno.He did not blame himself, his father and their cronies who fill all the top posts in the MIC for decades.Before Mugilan came into the picture, Samy Vellu and his son were already grappling with businessmen and CWC members K. P. Samy, Kumar Amman and P. Palaniappan, who wanted to know what the government had given and how these were distributed to the Indian community.Samy Vellu, they claimed, had used the government’s largesse to build a private empire to propagate his rule in the MIC and Indian community long after he retires.
That’s why the rebels have asked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to intervene and check whether the allocation had been properly distributed.“We want to know who is occupying these positions and whether they benefit the Indian community or serve the interest of the Samy Vellu family,” Mugilan said.
These questions have never been asked in the MIC but are now being asked and come as unprecedented revelations to both MIC members, the government and to Malaysians.“There is a need for a Royal Commission to probe Samy Vellu and all his actions and decisions both in the MIC and the government,” said Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran.
“I will be moving such a motion in Parliament.”The GAS movement should be seen in this light, as a struggle to make an era accountable to the people.They welcomed Samy Vellu’s arrival and gave him RM106 million in cash, a princely sum, to start Maika Holdings and realise their dream to lift themselves out of poverty.But that experiment failed miserably and no accounting has been offered on how the money was used or misused.The government is only interested in paying off shareholders and closing the book on Maika Holdings. It is not keen to make anybody accountable for this tragedy.
“GAS wants to make Samy Vellu answerable for Maika and other failures,” Mugilan said. “I am not alone in wanting an accounting from his family. All Malaysians have a right to this.”GAS has a few things going for it - mass support from the Indian working class who have already rejected Samy Vellu and his divisive methods many years before, and strong support from key individuals in the Indian community.These include his rival, Subramaniam, who has called on Samy Vellu to step down and has given unequivocal support to the GAS movement.This means that nearly one-third of the MIC, which is Subramanian’s support level in the party, will throw its weight behind GAS. And these include CWC members, delegates and branch chairmen.
All that is needed is for these forces to come together in a triggering event that could be the GAS movement.Datuk Vyran T Raj, a leader of the Tamil working class, also gave his support and endorsed the GAS movement and the significance of this is that the IPF and its various factions have now been given the green light to back GAS.GAS could be like an IPF which started in 1989 as the Naad Pani Mandram or Goodwill Societies and later coalesced into the Indian Progressive Front which joined with the Gagasan Rakyat movement led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.IPF and its leader, the late Tan Sri M. G. Pandithan, were instrumental in securing Indian working class support for the Gagasan Rakyat which came close to unseating the Barisan Nasional then led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
GAS has the potential to be another IPF as it is able to gather all the anti-Samy Vellu forces under one roof but the irony is while IPF was against anti-Samy Vellu and anti-BN, GAS is also anti-Samy Vellu but for BN.
Source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com
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