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CHIAROSCURO: Indian threesome, anyonw?

I wrote this for my Chiaroscuro column in malaysiakini (http://www.malaysiakini.com) today, 01 February 01

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01 February 01

CHIAROSCURO

MGG Pillai

Indian Threesome, Anyone?

The MIC president, S. Samy Vellu, wants the Indian Progressive Front and its president, M.G. Pandithan, to give up the ghost and join him in the MIC. If that is scant incentive, the People's Progressive Party president, M. Kayveas, with a gravitas befitting his new status as an unelected deputy minister, tells him to join the MIC. But, of course, if he does not want to, the PPP is always open to them. Kayveas reads too much of Malaysian corporate moves in which the weaker takes over the stronger.

But nothing is on the table. The MIC, frightened of declining support and internal squabbles, believes it could again be a first rate Indian political party with the numbers, though not with Pandithan amongst MIC leaders, the IPF has. In other words, Pandithan and his legions are invited to come in and be decimated. That in gist is the MIC offer. He was once expelled from the MIC when he rose far too fast to give every one, including the president, the shivers.

In the MIC's little-spoken but real caste-ridden politics, the voice of the casteless, which Pandithan represents, is there to be silenced. But Samy Vellu now regrets his offer. He would not put it in writing. He wants Pandithan to join MIC as Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and his Semangat '46 joined UMNO, without any offers from UMNO in writing.

But in that case, the two presidents negotiated for a modus vivendi before a deal was cut. And that did not begin without a letter to Tengku Razaleigh from the UMNO president, Dr Mahathir Mohamed.

UMNO spoke from strength, and once in, the Tengku and his hordes were ignored. They remain so to this day. They are on UMNO's offside. When Tengku Razaleigh attempted to contest the deputy presidency in the last UMNO general elections, all stops were pulled to shut him out. He could not contest. It was, in the light of subsequent events, unwise. It would want him on his side, but he withholds support, and makes his own moves.

UMNO and PAS spar over Malay unity, their secretaries-general meeting shortly to discuss how it could be achieved. Ultimately, UMNO would want PAS in the National Front. But UMNO is prepared to talk this over with PAS to save its political skin.

Samy Vellu ought to take this cue if he is serious about uniting the Indian communities. He should formally and with good intent. It should not be, as now, an off-handed approach he is not prepared to put on paper. Besides, the PPP's unasked-for role reduces a comedy into a farce.

If Samy Vellu is serious, he should formally invite Pandithan and IPF, not in a speech or press conference but in writing. Pandithan spoiled his own chances by showing too keen an interest. And forced into a corner, now with both MIC and the multiracial PPP wanting not so much him as his solid flank of potential voters. But hot air does not make good politics.

The MIC, like UMNO and the Malaysian Chinese Association, chases its own tail in fright after the Lunas byelection defeat. With the whole country generally supportive of the National Front, the MIC, with its huge cracks papered over with success, coasted along.

But once the especially Malay man-in-the-street moved away in anger and confusion from UMNO, as now, no non-Malay political party in the coalition could take its raison d'etre for granted. It has alienated so many important groups that it could become a cipher in national politics.

The MIC and Samy Vellu on the one hand and M. Kayveas and PPP on the other are now bit players in the political realignment in the Malaysian body politic. Pandithan and IPF is well positioned, as Tengku Razaleigh and his legions in UMNO, to dictate events. But unlike the Tengku, Pandithan was quick to want to jump into bed with MIC at any terms.

Samy Vellu's fright he might not drives him. If the IPF stands aloof, backing the National Front but not MIC, its impact could only be imagined. But he could pull that off. The MIC thinks it can subvert that by reducing him to a zero once inside. It worked once. But lightning rarely strikes in the same spot twice. All in all, the three argue over a dead cat.

Ends