The party has not done anything at winning back the hearts and minds of the Malaysian Indian community.
KUALA
LUMPUR: The much awaited 66th MIC annual general assembly ended today
without any firm decision on the fate of the 1.8 million Malaysian
Indian community. Instead it was turned into a Pakatan Rakyat bashing
platform.
Officiating the assembly, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak launched a
stinging attack against the opposition by repeating the word “tipu”
(cheat) more than 20 times in his 30 minute speech referring to the
opposition pact.
Claiming that the opposition coalition was full of lies, Najib said
that Pakatan was only good in making promises compared to the BN which
fulfilled promises.
He also brushed aside Pakatan Rakyat’s claim that there were 300,000
stateless Indians in the country. He slammed the opposition in handling
the Kampung Buah Pala (Penang) squatters issue and the demolition of a
private shrine in Sepang recently.
But this was not expected from Najib. He did not dwell on the plight of the community or its problems.
Several observers attending the assembly were clearly disappointed
with Najib’s speech as it did not address the issues confronting the
Malaysian Indian community.
Najib failed to use the platform to energise the party which seemed less vibrant of late.
Despite, being the last MIC AGM before the 13th general election,
party president G Palanivel’s presidential speech was not hard hitting,
making only a list of “minor” requests for the government to fulfill.
The assembly was expected to be used by Palanivel and Najib to boost the Indian support for the ruling coalition.
Sub-standard debates
“Palani
missed the golden opportunity to express the feelings of Indians, who
have been marginalised over the last 55 years, to Najib and BN,” said a
delegate from Perak who did not want to be named.
“Palani
missed the golden opportunity to express the feelings of Indians, who
have been marginalised over the last 55 years, to Najib and BN,” said a
delegate from Perak who did not want to be named.
“Indian votes are pivotal to BN in the upcoming election. Thus,
Palanivel should have raised bigger issues at his doorstep than talking
about photocopy machines to Tamil schools and other peanut matters,” he
added.
The one-day MIC general assembly was attended by some 1,400 party
delegates and 2,000 observers here at Putra World Trade Centre(PWTC).
Noted as the shortest MIC general assembly in the history of the
party, the one day assembly also proved to be very dull following
sub-standard debates by delegates who spoke on the presidential address
and five resolutions tabled.
The delegates largely praised the prime minister and party president
by saying that both the leaders were doing their best to bring back the
Malaysian Indians community back to the BN fold.
A survey form was also circulated outside the AGM hall, requiring
respondents to state among other things, if the BN would form the next
federal government.
It also required the respondents to state the strengths and
weaknesses of Pakatan Rakyat. It also wanted to know steps to be taken
by the BN to secure Indian votes at the next election.
The survey form came with a free 2013 calender.
There were also two hand-books, namely ‘Janji Ditepati’ and ‘Janji
Dicapati’. The Janji Ditepati praised the BN for keeping up its promises
to the people while Janji Dicapati depicted Pakatan Rakyat’s failure to
keep its 2008 election promises.
Judging from the assembly today, MIC would be facing an uphill task
of not only winning seats at the next election but also in winning back
the hearts and minds of the Malaysian Indian community.
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