REBRANDING MIC? Joke of the Century & Stop the Bullshit

MIC and its leader came to a “full stop” in the last general election. The party almost got wiped out – something that interestingly we Indians were only happy to hear. Indians who threw a big party to celebrate Samy Vellu's defeat in Sungai Siput. Hindraf supporters on the other hand were seen to be relieved to get their prayers answered – Indians have woken up and started to put things rights with their votes.

So, here we have race based political parties taking severe beatings from common Malaysians and was left in delusion as to what had happened. It was almost comical to find defeated politicians going around the country crying foul and wondering what had happened. Perhaps they did not read my post titled “Why BN Lost” – that would have saved them time and public funds (organising seminars and forums to find the fault).

What can MIC can do to salvage the trust and confidence?
1. Investigate the Maika Scandal
Find out what REALLY happened and be prepared to go after those who were at fault and made huge “profits” from this short change.

Can something be salvaged for the cheated shareholders? The shareholders, many who paid for the shares with their hard earned money and life savings, deserves an answer. What happened to the Telekom shares and where the money has gone to?

For three decades, the over 66,000 Maika shareholders had been having a raw deal especially after the infamous RM120 million Maika Telekom shares hijacking scandal where nine of ten million Telekom shares specially allocated to Maika were diverted to three private companies.

The history of MIC thuggery and gangsterism in the mismanagement of Maika Holdings to deny the rights of 66,000 Maika shareholders through a reign of fear and intimidation was repeated every year in the annual general meeting.

From Hindraf’s site:-
Imagine how much Maika would have made from these shares for which it only paid RM5 per share. When Telekom shares were “first traded it fetched a price of RM6.15 per share and that too during a bearish market.

By mid-1992 the Telecoms share price was hovering around RM11-RM13,” observed Terence Gomez. According to Ram, in an article in the Aliran Monthly - 1993:13(10) - by giving away the bulk of the shares, Samy Vellu had taken away from Maika RM120 million in profit (which it would have attained had it just held on to the extra shares until then).

Certainly many versions of what happened been thrown to the public but other than the party president’s version, what else has been the official version? If money has been siphoned out and can be traced back, get the money and return it back to the shareholders. The party cannot keep silence forever on what really happened.

2. Change of leaders
Nothing leads to a faster change than a drastic change at the very top. Just like a striving business where the CEO is visionary, dedicated to the shareholders and is making the right changes, the change of a political leader works the same way. And MIC has been notorious for it’s stagnancy at the top. - the “CEO” who been running the show for the last 30 years with no real achievements is interestingly still at the driver’s seat.

Samy Vellu have been “up there” for sometime now and when he announced that the party is getting fresh faces in (an announcement that been made for far too many times), one will be thinking that he was talking about the “oldies” getting out and getting the “young one” in - UMNO has done it with Dr M and MCA did it with Lim Leong Sik.

It was time for real change. It was time for a new management. But happens in the end? The president is still clinging on the post with more promises of “change”, “new faces”, “new approach” and more. Yes, some oldies were discarded in the process.

As one had said before, it is still an old content with a new package – nothing has really changed at the core.

3. Stop the re-branding bullshit
Fresh from the humiliating defeat in the last general election, and instead of going back to the basics, what does the party leaders do? Like trying to repackage a beaten up car, the party goes on a massive rebranding effort (so obvious that these guys are clueless on what is happening):-

MIC will also carry the new tagline, “A New Generation Party,” while maintaining its “MIC Cares” theme, with a new party logo, new song, and new uniforms for the women and youth wings.

A call centre will be established to entertain problems, and a new portal to replace the party’s current website will also be launched.

An MIC discount card will also be given to members for use at selected outlets. “We are expecting total penetration of this image change within a two-year period. “A detailed action plan will also be communicated to all grassroots leaders via some 140 meetings to be held in all branches from district to district,” he said, adding that the complete exercise would cost some RM500,000.

If you have extra money to be wasted on the so-called rebranding exercise, you go ahead and waste them but at the end of the day, ask yourself whether you have create a value from the rebranding exercise.

Certainly the questions were raised on the logic of changing the package when the content is the same.

You want to rebrand the party? There is a simpler way to do that – throw out the race based ruling and become a multi cultured, multi race party. Merge with other if need to do. Drop the “I” from the “MIC”. At the end of the day, represent Malaysians as a whole and fight on what is right.

excerpts from: BJ Thoughts