Kayveas: Samy Out of Control

In India, an angry Samy Vellu lashed out at a "PPP member" for disputing his statement on the state of the Indian community in Malaysia.

Reported in Malaysiakini.com, "Here I am telling the Indians that we are all doing well and that the Indian community in Malaysia is well take care of and yet there are some individuals who rebut me by stating the opposite," he told the media, which was shown in TV3 late news on the same day.

He said an individual named S Nadarajah was one such person, claiming that he (Nadarajah) was a PPP member who had strayed out of line from the BN principles by attacking the government in India.

A furious PPP President Kayveas said that he was going to sue MIC president S Samy Vellu for defaming his party at the recently ended meeting of the Indian diaspora in New Delhi.

Both Nadarajah and Kayveas have denied the former association with PPP. Hence, the rift between PPP and MIC deepens.

He retorted that “Samy Vellu is getting paranoid as a result of the public anger against him. It is unfair and uncalled for to deflect his failures to us”.

“He has lost control of the situation, not just here in Malaysia but also in India." This is an apparent reaction to Samy's denial that Indian community in Malaysia is happy with the way they are treated.

If they are well treated, why is there a need to create a special committee to look into the plights and grouses of the community? Samy should not try to MISLEAD the public and the press.

A better political strategy would be to accept the marginalisation and to announce a concrete plan and a political will to do away with race affirmative policy.

The marginalisation of the Indian community is a result of the government's socio-economic policy failure and misdirection. Samy is to be blamed because he has claimed credits for representing the community over the last 50 years.

But in reality, Samy is helpless. He is merely using the claim to keep MIC relevant in Malaysia's racial political landscape. MIC, with its sole cabinet minister position, has find it difficult to present the views and needs of the community to be considered in a cabinet largely dominated by UMNO.

UMNO's own quest for survival and political dominance has resulted in the "Bumiputerisation" of major socio-economic policies formulated in the country. Its top leaders such as PM Abdullah, DPM Najib, Women's chief Rafidah, Youth leaders Hishamuddin and Khairy have put both the Malay Agenda and Islamisation at the forefront.

The current racial political model does not benefit any race-based political party in BN except for UMNO.

Within the political milieu and the current environment, I do not how Samy can justify the government's good treatment of the Indians. In the past, most Indians work in the rubber estate. Socio-economic transformation and the consolidation of the estates have pushed Indians out of the estates into semi-urban and urban areas.

Felda, created to manage rural development, should have helped the Indians to relocate to other agricultural activities and to encourage entrepreneurship within the community but did not do much. Felda is focusing mainly on Bumiputera farmers. As a result, many displaced Indians are living in abject poverty and neglect.

MIC's formula to distribute corporate equity amongst Indians through Maika is riddled with mismanagement, self-interest, greed and a lack of political will to help the community.

Indians continue to face limited choices in education, jobs, business opportunities, civil service and others. The community is facing various social problems including youth delinquencies and dropouts, drug abuse, crime, suicide and others.

With such a track record, no wonder many Indians - including Indian members of BN component parties - have voiced their dissatisfaction and anger towards Samy Vellu and his leadership of MIC.

It is time the veteran politician must come clean or risks tarnishing his political legacy. I managed to browse through a book on his achievements. Many have spoken kind words of him, calling him a hero, godsend, special one etc.

Perhaps there could be another book in progress documenting the exact opposite about the feisty leader.

Picture courtesy of Malaysiakini.com