MGG Pillai Commentary View

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Samy Vellu and the MIC dilemma

THE MIC PRESIDENT, DATO' SERI S. Samy Vellu, must ingratiate himself into the good books of the new Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. There is no other why. Not when he believes that having been MIC president for 24 years, he is good for another 30. He is democratically elected - as in many a dictatorship, few would dare to challenge him, the rules are weighted against the challenger, and he is returned unopposed. In this, the MIC is no different from the other parties in the National Front (BN). Elections for the presidency of BN parties are as rare as Dr Mahathir in Putrajaya so far this month. Pak Lah does not want deadwood and Mahathir cronies in his cabinet. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu qualifies on both counts. Pak Lah wants a new face, and would rather Dato' Seri S. Subramaniam, the MIC deputy president for 20 years, be the cabinet minister from the Indian cabinet minister.

But in Pak Lah's new cabinet, which he deferred because of double-duty press speculation, the MIC nominee is reportedly missing. Instead, the name of Dato' M. Kayveas appears. The MIC leaders are flabbergasted. It was the clearest proof yet of the MIC leader's standing, or the lack of it, in Pak Lah's inner circle. So a new spin makes the rounds. That was deliberate, an MIC leader told me when I checked this with him. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu nominated Dato' Kayveas for the cabinet post in a roundabout long-term plan to merge the Malaysian Indian Congress with the latter's People's Progressive Party (PPP). In the new set-up, Dato' Kayveas would be a senior vice president who would succeed him when he decides to call it quits when he is 96. The PPP sources I contacted however had no clue to what I was asking. But if there is any truth in this, it only shows how irrelevant the MIC has become in Malaysian politics.

It also shows a dramatic change in BN politics in which its president does not take into account past standing, with real politik the only basis. Only that the MIC and its president did not grasp it early enough. So did not the Malaysian Chinese Association under its past president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, who was forced out when faced with the reality that he would not have any influence in the Pak Lah regime. The new MCA president, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, as his loyal henchman, also has, and like Dato' Seri Samy Vellu, works overtime to ingratiate himself before the new leader. As Dr Mahathir found at the tail end of his 22 years as Prime Minister, a dictatorial autocracy - let us not kid about it, this is what it was in practice - is not an ideal form of governance. No one would dare tell him the Emperor wears no clothes. Pak Lah understands this, and has told BN leaders to tell him the truth. But BN leaders - Dato' Seri Samy Vellu is only one - deify their hold on the parties they lead, brook no opposition, and when opposition comes from outside the party, they are annoyed. They always look over their shoulders to war off attacks from other Indian leaders from other parties.

The MIC organises a convention of MIC branch chairman in Shah Alam yesterday (09 November 2003) ostensibly to prepare the MIC for the general election. Twelve thousand attended, which if its president is believed, is the largest gathering of Indians in one place. It should earn a place in the Malaysian Indian book of records. But in his speech, he could not contain himself about threats to his position. He singled out the Indian Progressive Party (IPF) president, Dato' M.G. Pandithan, for nominating an editor of a Tamil newspaper opposed to Dato' Seri Samy Vellu for an award from the King. And committed a faux pas. He should not have brought His Majesty's name into a political dispute, which is what it is. The award is given only after careful vetting in the Prime Minister's Department and the Palace. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu would have been shown the list before the Prime Minister forwarded the recommendations. Why did he not object then? Or is he telling us even Dr Mahathir did not, in the end, extend him the courtesy he did have in the past?

Dato' Seri Samy Vellu's dilemma is real. Dato' Pandithan's IPF is quite well entrenched in the Indian political scene. But he does not use that clout effectively. By aligning himself to the BN, the IPF is neither here nor there. The MIC would not allow the IPF in BN. He made an ill-advised attempt to merge with PPP. With a vote bank as the IPF has, it should have used that to bargain for a better deal and membership in the BN. But by insisting he would not desert the BN, he lost that edge. But it is still the best organised Indian political party. The MIC dithers and drifts aimlessly under Dato' Seri Samy Vellu, unable to make itself heard where it matters. There is no internal debate and any view that challenges the president's is veboten. If this view of the MIC leader has any basis, it is that MIC to strengthen its base has to merge with an irrelevant political party like the PPP. Its natural ally would have been the PPP. But Dato' Seri Samy Vellu would not hear of it, if only because Dato' Pandition is closer to Dato' S. Subramaniam than he is to Dato' Seri Samy Vellu. The newspaper editor who got the award is aligned to the MIC deputy president.

As Pak Lah finds out, UMNO is in shambles, the legacy of an autocratic dictatorship under Dr Mahathir. He has to follow the critics and move to alienate himself from the excesses of the Mahathir epoch. But he has the resources, and the help, to make the change. The MIC does not. It is riddled with cronyism from top to bottom, and the leader who comes after Dato' Samy Vellu - it would be sooner than later, and one should not discount the possibility that the BN candidate in the Sungei Siput constituency is other than its MP of 29 years - has a Gargantuan task ahead of him. If UMNO does not transform itself in the next few years, it could disappear from the Malaysian landscape. If the MIC does not form strategic partnerships with other parties, and do a thorough spring cleaning within, it could well be another party - even the IPF - which would take its place.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my