Palanivel's 'CWC' sets its own polls dates

The MIC faction led by G Palanivel has announced their own central working committee (CWC) election dates, slated for September.

This was decided after his committee held a meeting today.

Another faction led by Dr S Subramaniam had announced earlier that the CWC election would be completed by October.

For now, it would appear that MIC is headed towards having two separate annual general meetings and two elections.

Subramaniam claimed that the Registrar of Societies had recognised him as the acting president of MIC and that Palanivel was no longer a party member.

However, Palanivel told reporters today that Subramaniam had taken the letter out of context, but did not elaborate on the matter.

Previously, Palanivel had claimed that the CWC had resolved to suspend Subramaniam's party membership for a year.

MIC's ongoing leadership crisis can be traced back to December last year, when the ROS nulified the results of the 2013 CWC election and ordering fresh elections.

Following this, Palanivel had took the ROS to court to challenge the ROS decision. Subramaniam's faction claimed that Palanivel had automatically ceased to be a party member as Article 91 of the MIC constitution forbids any member from taking party matters to court.


Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/303488

Palanivel calls Subra chicken-hearted

Insisting once again that he is the president of MIC, G Palanivel has launched a broadside on his deputy Dr S Subramaniam, who claims to be the acting number one.

Palanivel also accused Subramaniam of not having the gumption to face him in the party elections.

"Let me make it absolutely clear that I am the president of MIC and there shall be no doubt whatsoever on this.

"I have been a member of MIC since I was 18 years old and there is no way I am going to allow Subramaniam, who is so scared to face me in the elections, to unilaterally and unlawfully claim that I am no longer a member of MIC," he said in a media statement.

Palanivel (photo) also claimed that Subramaniam had "misled" the public to think that the Registrar of Societies (ROS) has recognised that he (Palanivel) is no longer an MIC member as per Article 91 of the MIC constitution and that RoS has attached the list of office bearers of the alleged 2009 Interim Central Working Committee (CWC) of MIC.
 
"From the reading of the letter, it is clear that the letter from ROS  has been taken out of context.

"ROS has merely noted the wrong contents of the letter dated June 17, 2015 sent by Subramaniam and his group to RoS.

"ROS has not made any determination on its own on the application of Article 91 of the MIC constitution. ROS knows that it has no such jurisdiction to interpret the MIC constitution," Palanivel added.

Will take all necessary action

Palanivel also believes that the ROS had attached the list of the alleged office bearers of the 2009 interim CWC purely based on the letter from Subramaniam to the RoS.

“It was not ROS' own conduct of determining who are the lawful office bearers, which is beyond its jurisdiction.

He added that the ROS should not have acknowledged unilaterally whatever Subramaniam and his group had written to them.

“More so when I had on June 16, 2015 written to the ROS immediately to put ROS on notice of the illegality of the notice and the meeting held by Subra on June 16.

Palanivel said he would take “all necessary action” against Subramaniam and, if necessary, also against the ROS to protect his and the party's interests.

“I will not allow third parties to dictate on the internal affairs of MIC. I will not allow people like Subramaniam and his group to pawn MIC's affairs to third parties for their own political agenda,” he said.

The natural resources and environment minister said he had spoken to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak (photo) and had given his proposals for the elections of the party to be conducted.

“I am awaiting the response of the prime minister who I believe was receptive of my proposals for an amicable resolution,” he said.

Urging party members and leaders not to be disheartened with the current situation, Palanivel also assured them that he was taking all necessary action to undo all the “illegal things” being done by Subramaniam and his group.

“With the overwhelming support of all the members and leaders of MIC who are behind me, we will surely come out of this situation with the integrity and dignity of the party intact,” he said.

The ROS had said that Palanivel was no longer a member of MIC and that Subramaniam is the party's new acting president.

This was stated in a letter from registrar Muhammad Razin Abdullah to the party's CWC that was elected in 2009, which RoS recognises as the party's rightful office-bearers.

The letter also states that Subramaniam has the mandate to lead the CWC in conducting a re-election of the party leadership.


Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/303162

ROS confirms Palanivel is out of MIC

The Registrar of Societies (ROS) has recognised that G Palanivel is no longer a member of MIC and that Dr S Subramaniam is the party's acting president.

This is stated in a letter from ROS to the party's central working committee (CWC) that was elected in 2009, which ROS recognises as the party's rightful office-bearers.

The letter also states that Subramaniam has the mandate to lead the CWC in conduting a re-election of the party leadership.

Palanivel, who was elected party president in 2013, had mounted a legal challenge against a ROS directive to hold the 2013 CEC election again.

This followed complaints from some party members that there were irregularities during the election held in December 2013.

Article 19 of the MIC constitution stipulates that any member who takes party matters to court will automatically lose their party membership.

Palanivel's legal challenge was unsuccessful and the court also denied his application for a stay on the execution of its decision.

The latest correspondence by the ROS means that Palanivel will soon have to step down as a minister in the Prime Minister's Departmentm, since his appointment is based on his membership in MIC as a member of the BN coalition.

Palanivel was acting MIC president since late 2009 and was formally elected to the position in December 2013.

Since the suit was filed on Feb 24, 2015, Palanivel will go down in history as the shortest-lived elected MIC president, having served only 14 months.


Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/303078

Subra's pack strikes back, wants Palanivel out

Following a show of force by party president G Palanivel yesterday, MIC deputy president Dr S Subramaniam and his supporters held their own assembly today.

Claiming to represent the will of 2,758 MIC branches, the group gathered at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) and voted to oust Palanivel through two resolutions.

Nearly all had raised their hands in support of the two resolutions.

The first resolution was to adopt the Registrar of Society’s (ROS) directive to hold a re-election, as well as the court’s findings that Palanivel and four others had acted on their own when they filed a suit in a bid to overturn the directive.

The second resolution to uphold Article 91 of the party constitution, which states that no party member shall bring party matters to court without the consent of the party’s central working committee (CWC), and those who do so shall cease to be members immediately.

A tale on one party with two presidents and no leader

MIC is a tale of two leaders but with neither leading the community as it appears the party is beleaguered and there isn’t a ray of hope that things will get better.

MIC’s leadership has been on a swing since the party elections in 2013. We have seen spats between two factions headed by “President” G Palanivel and his deputy S Subramaniam respectively.

After a long drawn battle of ugly and unremorseful clashes between the rival groups, Palanivel applied for judicial review against the Registrar of Societies (RoS) for its directive to MIC to hold fresh elections. The application was dismissed two days ago and since then there has been loads of news and rumours circulating in public.

Of course, interest from Malaysian Indians at large has dropped to almost zero with just the MIC stalwarts prominent on to the scene, for self-gratification.

Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had said Umno will not interfere in the growing spat within MIC dismissing it as an “internal matter”. This is understandable with BN having its plate already overflowing.

MIC looks like a tragic comedy to me or should I say it is infused with a comedy of errors much more complex than that of a Shakespearean drama. Earlier this year we had the president sacking several Central Working Committee (CWC) members and appointing a new secretary-general.

After losing his legal battle with RoS, he suspends 15 MIC office-bearers for convening the CWC meeting. As an immediate retort the Interim CWC committee has in turn sacked the president for initiating the judicial review against the RoS.

The faction has claimed that Palanivel was no longer the MIC president while Palanivel has issued a statement declaring that he is indeed the president. Do we now have two presidents or none at all?

With the two factions enthusiastically sacking each other and with no clear sight of intervention or mediation from BN or any other power that may be, MIC is moving into obscurity and is at threat of extinction, with no chance for revival.

Source :  Bhavani Krishna Iyer is an FMT reader.

MIC headless as two claim to be president

Earlier today, MIC president G Palanivel suspended his deputy Dr S Subramaniam. Several hours later, the number two announced that he is now the acting president.

Subramaniam had chaired a MIC interim central working committee (CWC) which affirmed that Palanivel's membership was automatically revoked the moment he took the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to court without obtaining an approval from the CWC.

"The party constitution states that any member who takes party issues to court without a resolution from the CWC is automatically stripped of membership," he said.

Subramaniam, who announced that he would be taking up the role of acting president, said he had raised the matter with the BN leadership in March.

However, it was not made public due to a stay order in court.

The latest development also sees A Sakthivel being made secretary-general whereas SA Vigneswaran would assume the post of executive secretary.

On Monday, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed two judicial review applications filed by four MIC leaders, including Palanivel.

The other three - vice-presidents S Sothinathan and S Balakrishnan, former secretary-general A Prakash Rao and its strategic director AK Ramalingam  - have also been stripped of their membership.

Meanwhile, Subramaniam also dismissed Palanivel’s decision to suspend him, MIC vice-president M Saravanan and 13 other CWC 2009 members for violating his directive and holding a meeting.

"We don't recognise his orders," he said, adding that it has no effect on the party or CWC.



Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/302067

MIC president suspends deputy, senior leaders

MIC president G Palanivel announced today the suspension with immediate effect his deputy Dr S Subramaniam and one of the party's vice-presidents, M Saravanan.

Also suspended were 12 other office-bearers all of whom he accused of going ahead with meeting of the party's interim CWC despite being ordered by him to cancel it.

Those suspended are Subramaniam, Saravanan, SK Devamany, N Rawisandran, R Ganesan, M Davendran, KRA Naidu, VM Panjamothy, P Manivasagam, S Ananthan, M Mathuraiveran, M Asojan, P Shanmugan and Mohana Muniandy.

Subramaniam (photo) is health minister while Saravanan is deputy minister for youth and sports. Devamany is the Perak state legislative assembly speaker.

In a press statement today, Palanivel said he had yesterday issued a memo to all party CWC members and other leaders to cancel the meeting of the interim CWC.

"Despite my said memo, these individuals did not cancel the scheduled meeting.

"It is beyond doubt that the acts of these individuals are clearly detrimental to the interests of the MIC. By virtue of the powers vested in me as president, I have suspended their membership for 12 months, with immediate effect.

The day Telekom Malaysia SLOWED DOWN the world's Internet

KUALA LUMPUR - The world’s Internet traffic slowed down dramatically over the weekend and network services firm CloudFlare has identified the problem as having been temporarily caused by a Malaysian firm, reported industry publication CloudPro.

“The world’s Internet slowed dramatically after an outage affecting internet service provider Level 3’s network hit a number of other ISPs around the globe last week,” the industry publication reported.

“Not only did people report their web surfing had slowed, but it also impacted various websites using Level 3’s services – including eBay and Yahoo Mail, plus gaming services PSN and Xbox Live.”

While CloudFlare did not identify the Malaysian firm, another industry publication The A Channel reported that one of Level 3’s networks (AS3549 – Global Crossing) made a traffic routing blunder and “immediately proceeded to dump huge amounts of traffic on the tiny Telekom Malaysia”.

“This is way more traffic than Telekom Malaysia was prepared to handle,” reported The A Channel, though it noted that: “Plenty of debate continues as to the exact cause and nature of the outage”.

Level 3 had earlier said in a statement: “Our network is currently experiencing service disruptions affecting customers in Europe, Middle-East and Africa, and globally.

“Ensuring the stability of our network and communications services is our primary concern and we are dedicated to minimising impact to our customers. Our technicians have isolated the issue and are currently completing the necessary remedial works. We are starting to see normal service return.” - Therakyapost

Source: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=532991:the-day-telekom-malaysia-slowed-down-the-worlds-internet&Itemid=3#ixzz3dBjj6at9 

No place for Tamil language in Kedah

COMMENT The state in Peninsular Malaysia that came under heavy Tamil influence was Kedah.

Before the advent of the Cholas about 1,000 years ago, Kedah was under the domain of the Srivijaya Dynasty for considerable period of time.

It is ironical, the state that derives its name from Tamil word Kedaram, has the least respect and recognition for the advancement of the Tamil language and Tamil schools.

For that matter, even the Tamil school that is located in the sprawling Bujang Valley, containing rich treasures of the Indian past, is in most deplorable state.

While Kedah might boast of a rich ancient Hindu/Indian past, both the federal government and the state governments have little to improve the lives of Indians, descendants of those who were brought from South India to work as indentured labourers.

After 58 years of political independence, Indians in Kedah, the vast majority of them being rural and urban workers, have been left out of the development mainstream. 

The most important identity marker of Tamils in Kedah seems to be Hindu temples, which more visible today than before as result of plantation land going for the development.

Other than temples, there is nothing Indians can look forward in a state where  the former Malaysian prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, originated.

Like the other peninsula states, there is open discrimination of Indians in the public service: very few Indians actually gain employment in the government bureaucracy or the civil service. Indians are left out in the state-linked government companies, some gain employment as drivers and office boys.

Blatter quits as FIFA corruption storm grows

ZURICH: Sepp Blatter resigned Tuesday as president of FIFA in a stunning capitulation to critics as the weight of corruption scandals threatened world football’s governing body.

“I don’t feel I have a mandate from the entire world of football,” Blatter, 79, calmly told a press conference at FIFA headquarters just four days after winning a fifth term.

The Swiss official, who has ruled the world’s most powerful sports federation for 17 years, said he would remain in charge until a special congress can choose a new leader. He vowed to pursue strong reforms in that time.

But the New York Times and ABC News, citing unnamed sources, said Blatter was also the focus of an FBI investigation.

Some opponents said the world should “celebrate” Blatter’s departure.

But UEFA president Michel Platini, who had called for Blatter’s resignation, hailed the “brave decision.” Sponsors like Coca-Cola called the move “positive.”

The arrest of seven FIFA officials in a luxury Zurich hotel last Wednesday unleashed the latest corruption storm to hit the organisation’s leader.

“I felt compelled to stand for re-election, as I believed that this was the best thing for the organisation,” he said on a day in which new revelations about dubious payments increased pressure.