PEOPLE'S POWER

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu wants him back. Datuk S. Subramaniam wants to go back. But their supporters don't want the two men to make up.

That is the dilemma facing the MIC, which is trying to pick up the pieces after its mauling at the general election.

Samy Vellu has invited his former deputy Subramaniam to help revive the party's fortunes. The two leaders went their separate ways in 2006 when the party president backed Datuk G. Palanivel to oust Subramaniam.

Samy Vellu's supporters, who over the years have made Subramaniam an outcast, are finding it difficult to learn that they have to work with him again.

Things are not going well for Subramaniam's supporters either as they are also refusing to work with Samy Vellu again.

It was learnt that during a closed-door meeting with Subramaniam, his supporters openly declared their dissatisfaction aboout him going back to work with Samy Vellu.

Subramanian's hardcore supporter K.P. Samy said he and other supporters were kept in the dark on the "deal" between the two leaders.

"Moreover, how is Subramaniam going to accommodate his supporters who have been with him over the years," said the former central working committee member.

The rivalry between the two MIC leaders dates back to 1975 when, despite securing the highest vote among the three MIC vice-presidents, Samy Vellu was overlooked for a government post by then party president Tan Sri V. Manickavasavasagam.

Instead, the post went to the younger Subramaniam, who was made a deputy minister.

In 1977, both men went head-to-head in a race for the party deputy presidency, won by Samy Vellu with a 26-vote majority. He held the post until October 1979, when he became president following Ma-nickavasavasagam's death.

In 1989, the two leaders were locked in a battle for the presidency with Samy Vellu emerging the winner. They reconciled later, when the victor asked then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to appoint Subramaniam as senator, enabling him to take up a deputy minister's post.

The relationship, however, was not smooth as the challenge still rankled with Samy Vellu.

In 2004, Subramaniam was not nominated to contest in the general election. Two years later, he was ousted as party deputy president.

K.P. Samy also asked what would become of the some 1,000 defunct branches and those who were expelled for being Subramaniam's supporters.

Samy said it was a mistake for Subramaniam to "go running to Samy Vellu the moment he was asked to".

"He should have discussed this with his supporters and also found out clearly what his status will be in MIC," he said.

He said Samy Vellu should declare Subramaniam as his successor and must make public the time frame for him to take over.

But not everyone shares Samy's opinion. There have been calls by members for both leaders to leave the leadership to others and not strike a deal to continue helming the party.

Selangor MIC Youth executive secretary K. Sritharan said there was a need to change the perception that anyone that the president appoints automatically becomes the leader for all.

"When Samy Vellu fought Subramaniam, the whole MIC line-up had to fight him as well. Now that they want to be friends, where do these people put their faces?" he asked.

He said it was better to have someone new to take over.

"Unless the whole management, the president, deputy president and the three vice-presidents, is changed, MIC will never be on the right track," he added.

Sritharan claimed caste politics was still alive in MIC and bringing back Subramaniam would compound the problem.

"Caste politics is evident even till today where you can see that almost 70 per cent of the candidates of the 2008 election are relatives or of the same caste as Samy Vellu," he added.

Like Sritharan, Taman Kinrara Section 3 branch chairman S. Murali is also worried that MIC would return to the old days should Samy Vellu push for Subramaniam to succeed him.

"MIC has long been a caste-oriented party. If Subramaniam becomes the next president, he will also play the same old tune," Murali said.

Murali added that MIC members who had severed their ties with Subramaniam would have no choice but to leave the party either voluntarily or involuntarily if he were to return to power.

He said these people had no choice but to oppose Subramaniam when Samy Vellu decided to back Palanivel for deputy president in the 2006 party polls.

Murali said both Samy Vellu and Subramaniam had been in the party long enough and it was time to have somebody new. He said current deputy president Palanivel would make a better president than Subramaniam.

MIC veteran Datuk M. Muthupalaniappan said he had also been getting such calls from party members saying that they did not want either Samy Vellu or Subramaniam to run the MIC.

"But the choice should be left to party members to decide during the party polls on who they want to lead the party," he said.

He also called for an immediate party election, handled by an independent commission, for members to elect a president without fear or favour or tainted by money and power politics.

MIC's party election is not due until the middle of next year.

Suganthi Suparmaniam
NST