Save MIC, Barat Maniam tells Najib

PETALING JAYA: A former MIC division head today accused the party’s top leadership of abandoning the Indian community only to ensure that party president S Samy Vellu remain in power.V Subramaniam, better known as Barat Maniam, called on Barisan Nasional to remove Samy Vellu from power, saying other MIC leaders were “too beholden” to him to initiate change from within.“It’s up to the BN chairman now,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Maniam headed MIC’s Petaling Jaya Selatan division until last May, when he was sacked for allegedly issuing statements against the party’s interest. The party’s policymaking body, the Central Working Committee (CWC), endorsed the expulsion last month after considering his appeal.Since his expulsion, Maniam has been relentless in denouncing the party president, but in today’s statement, he shifted his aim to other party leaders.“No one can criticise the leadership these days,” he told FMT, adding that most of the CWC members who supported the decision to sack him and three others were "only interested in their own well being and not the party’s".

He ridiculed Samy Vellu’s recent announcement about setting up new MIC branches and increasing its membership as “mere hogwash” and a pathetic attempt to stay relevant.Samy Vellu’s “dictatorial rule” was pushing the majority of Malaysian Indians away from the party, he said."His removal should come from the inside, but that is unlikely because all the leaders were handpicked by him,” he said.“They are indebted to him. If they go against him, then he will go around and say that they are ungrateful.“Now the question is, if they are beholden to one man, then what about the 1.8 million Indians, or the half million MIC members?

"Their gratitude to Samy Vellu is greater than their concern for the wellbeing of the party and the Malaysian Indian population.”He said Samy Vellu was unpopular even in BN. “Even the BN coalition wants him out. As long as he is leading the party, MIC is heading towards its doom.”Referring to former PPP youth chief T Murugiah, he said his decision to join MIC was premature."He should have waited for the MIC to be renewed,” he said. “Joining the party now would be like committing political suicide."Murugiah, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, was recently sacked from the PPP.

Source : http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/politics/barisan-nasional/8821-save-mic-barat-maniam-tells-najib