Jun 18 2007
Samy is VIP of IPF assembly!
Samy to open IPF meet
KUALA LUMPUR: Indian Progressive Front (IPF) president Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan shocked many when he announced that his long-time arch rival MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu would be the guest-of-honour at IPF's general assembly on July 1.
Many were taken aback when they found out that Samy Vellu would be opening IPF's assembly as the two parties had been bitter rivals for so long.
“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was for it when I informed him of my intention,” Pandithan said in an interview.
The 66-year-old frail-looking Pandithan said the time had come for the Indian-based parties to be united and work for the betterment of the community.
“There is still lot of unsolved problems affecting the community. There is no point in quarrelling or finding faults with each other. It will not do any good,” he said.
He started to reflect on his 20-year enmity with Samy Vellu after the latter visited him several times while he was at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital last year.
Pandithan, who was then recuperating from an ailment at the hospital, said: “I had decided to forget the past and think of the future. He (Samy Vellu) has also magnanimously accepted my friendship without any condition.”
Both leaders had been inseparable in the MIC but Pandithan, then a vice-president, was sacked after he brought a coffin to the MIC headquarters in 1981 to embark on a “fast to death” effort to prove that he was not guilty of the charges of inciting violence and unrest in the party.
On the calls by a small group of dissidents that he was planning to dissolve the party, Pandithan, a former journalist, said the decision on the future of the party lies with the members.
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