By – Hesmel Faznee Faisal
Salam, to fellow bloggers and readers of this self proclaimed blog.
A lot of things had had happened within this couple of weeks. But the one that struck my attention most was the news on MIC President, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu’s (no offence to the great politician but some made a reference of him as Sammy No Value when he lost the Sungai Siput parliament constituency in the previous General Election!) decision to finally stepped down from the post, whom he has been holding to for the last 31 years!
There were few political analysts who suggest that the existing caste within the MIC was one of the reasons why the former MIC President refused to vacate the post. He wants to ensure that the person who will be replacing him (and in this case, it is Datuk G. Palanivel) will able to unite party members, in order to create stability within the party rank.
Being the second oldest political party in Malaysia after UMNO (UMNO was found on May 11, 1946 whilst MIC a couple of months later), MIC has been working real hard to gain back its credibility as the most senior partner in the National Front. Though MCA (which was form much later in 1949) was given more seats to contest compared to the MIC due to the number of populations (etc), this has never trigger MIC to withdraw from the coalition. I am sure not all Malaysians (who loved history as much as I do!) are aware that MIC had once even contested against the Alliance party, during its embryonic form for the Kuala Lumpur Municipal election in 1952, when Mr K. Ramanathan was the President.
It was only when Mr. K. L. Devaser, who took over from Mr K. Ramanathan, decided that it is vital for MIC to become allies with UMNO and MCA through the Alliance Party, to achieve Independence.
And the rest is history.
Of late, a demand has been made by a certain members from parties within the National Front to request for more Ministerial post for their party, especially for the recently promoted President who is only a Deputy Minister. I am not quite sure how BN President, Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak who is also the Prime Minister, will succumb to such demand.
Rationally, this particular party had lesser seats in the Parliament (after the 12th General Election back in 2008) compared to other coalitions and in order to fulfill the demand, the Prime Minister has left with no choice, but to either give back the post of Works Minister (a post previously held by the former MIC President) to MIC. To do so, the Prime Minister must tackle and please the UMNO warlords first, who in recent years have been sensitive when it comes to issues pertaining to the Malay rights or anything like it.
MIC has other major problems as well.
They have to try and woo back both the MIC members (who had left the party and joined either the non racial based parties either under the Pakatan Rakyat or BN!) and voters, which will not be as easy as walking through a park!
It is a do or die situation for MIC if they do not want to see their popularity slowly declining. The Indians have been divided into many groups (apart from the caste system, we have seen some Indians who had threw their lot for the Opposition parties and it is not a surprise to see some of them supporting PAS!) just like the Malays who had been divided into 4 groups namely UMNO, PAS, PKR and Perkasa (though the former is not considered an official registered political party, Jose!)
The General Election I believe will not be held within a couple of months. And to have a snap election by next year is like putting the final nail to the BN’s coffin. The acid test to determine on the popularity of BN would be during the Sarawak state election, scheduled in 2011. An action plan has to be carried out should there be a drastic reduction of majority votes for BN in the election. Otherwise, BN will have to face a possibility of becoming the opposition party in the near future!
Kita Kan Tersesat Pabila Malam Menjemput Bulan Semula Ke Sangkar Waktu – The Salam Connection.
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