So after all the huffing and puffing, the status quo in the MIC has prevailed. Samy Vellu is still running the show and controls the hen house. The incumbent deputy has retained his post and a slew of Samy’s cronies have consolidated their position.
Some might say Samy’s eternal adversary, Subra’s political ambition to rise to the pinnacle of the MIC might have come to a very inauspicious end. Maybe Subra might still find it in him to go for the presidency the next time around – even if the odds of him succeeding now are about as slim as Najib winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Whatever Palanivel’s strengths and virtues as a person, it is obvious that he has had to sign on to Samy’s terms in order to get the MIC machinery to support his candidacy. And therein lies the reality about the MIC – it will remain an entity mired with dysfunctionalism as it continues to senselessly twists in the Umno wind.
It’s striking, by the way, to see the unelected prime minister lecturing the MIC that it is important to win elections and not just party posts. This coming from a man who was anointed PM by Umno and whose party has been humiliated in by-election after by-election since he assumed office.
On the other hand, we have the MIC president unable to accept responsibility for failure and insists that it’s the BN that has not delivered on promises. And assuming this were true, I suppose it’s not dawned on Samy that doesn’t this speak volumes about his inept leadership which keeps the MIC locked into a situation with Umno/BN which is akin to asking Indians to eat their mamak mee with one chopstick.
Having robbed Indians of the proper utensils to eat their mee, he continues to keep them entangled in an exploitative relationship with Umno, and he now complains that it is the fault of those who make the mamak mee (that is Umno) and not those who are merely the hired hands who do the serving (MIC).
And that will be the kind of relationship – one of being a server - Palanivel will have to accept within BN, if and when he succeeds Samy. And this dysfunctional relationship, where the Indian voter is ultimately being served a bad plate of mamak mee and only one chopstick to eat it with, will continue to keep the Indians suffering and starving.
G. Krishnan
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