Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email TAN SRI M.G. PANDITHAN (1940-2008): Words of encouragement
KUALA LUMPUR: “Be strong and don’t lose hope.” Those were the last words of the late Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan to his wife Puan Sri P. Jayashree before he died at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital yesterday morning.
It was typical of a man whom family and friends called a fighter. The president of the Indian Progressive Front had been battling cancer for two years.
His wife was at his side when he died.
“Those were among his last words to me,” she said.
:He was a strong man and he made me strong,” said Jayashree, who had been married to Pandithan for 25 years.
“He did not want me to make a big scene about his death.”
It was this strength that kept Jayashree, 55, almost dry-eyed as she spoke to reporters at their house in Serdang.
“We anticipated this. He was ill for two years and had been in intensive care for 102 days. I have seen how he suffered especially in the last few days.”
She had received a phone call from the hospital early on Monday informing her that her husband had stopped breathing.
Doctors had told her that Pandithan’s heart had stopped beating but they managed to revive him.
“He was extremely weak after that. I am glad my son did not see him in that condition.”
Their son, Jayan, 21, is a medical student in Ukraine. At Press time, he was still not informed of his father’s death.
“I can’t get in touch with him as he is currently on a flight to Malaysia. All he knows is that his father is in critical condition,” said Jayashree.
The house was filled with family and friends who came by to pay condolences.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi turned up to offer his condolences to Jayashree about 3pm.
Pandithan will be cremated at the Cheras crematorium tomorrow at 3pm.
TAN SRI M.G. PANDITHAN (1940-2008): Hero of the poor Indian
By : Annie Freeda Cruez
sourceKUALA LUMPUR: Acclaimed journalist, seasoned politician and friend of the downtrodden among Indians. Most would agree that this would be a fitting epitaph for Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan, who embodied the spirit of “Malaysia Boleh” well before the slogan came about.
Born the eighth in a family of 13 in 1940, the son of a Kuala Lumpur City Council worker and washerwoman knew poverty intimately by the time he was in his teens.
Poverty would be the predominant theme in his 68 years of life, evidenced by his struggle on behalf of the hardcore poor in the community, many of whom also coincidentally happened to come from the lower castes.
Pandithan may have been unfairly cast by some as a champion of caste politics — dirty words among Malaysian Indians who like to think of themselves as “casteless” — when he may just have been fighting for the cause of the poor.
As the founder and president of the Dalit International Organisation, a non-governmental body committed to assist the working class, he had a meteoric rise in politics when he became a MIC vice-president at 41.
He had started working life at a company as an oil salesman, trying hard to escape the clutches of poverty which had shackled him and his family for so long.
In 1977, the 32-year-old began carving a name for himself at the Tamil Nesan, the leading Tamil newspaper of that time, which ironically under MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu’s influence later, would castigate him.
Pandithan, who had been a founder member of the MIC Jalan Loke Yew/San Peng branch in 1963, graduated to national politics in 1978 by becoming the member of parliament for Tapah.
He became a MIC vice-president in 1981.
He was made Trade and Industry Ministry parliamentary secretary in 1986, a position he had to quit in 1989 when he was expelled from the party.
For a while, he and Samy Vellu were friends as the latter saw in the young leader a valuable ally who could help consolidate his position in the party.
But in the end, the fragile friendship between the party supremo and the rising star shattered when Pandithan brought a coffin to the MIC headquarters in July 1988 to protest his expulsion from the party.
From then on, he was in the political wilderness despite campaigning for the Barisan Nasional at every general election with the exception of the 1990 polls when he joined the opposition and lost.
His Indian Progressive Front (IPF) would arguably be “alive” for the next two decades but would never join the BN because of Samy Vellu’s intractable stand on the matter.
His links with BN leaders won him two terms as a senator and position of director of Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB), a government agency dealing with low and medium-cost housing projects.
In February last year, he was conferred the Panglima Setia Makhota (PSM) in conjunction with the birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong which made him a Tan Sri.
Pandithan kept himself busy in the 1990s and the early years of the 2000s attending community functions where he regaled Indians with his fiery oratory skills.
Seventeen years later, he and Samy Vellu made up when the latter visited him in hospital where he was being treated for cancer.
In July last year, an ailing Pandithan told a press conference that he wanted to bury the hatchet with Samy Vellu, saying “enough is enough”.
In the end, Pandithan was reunited, albeit indirectly, with the party that had put him on the political road.
His political carrier had finally come full circle.
Pandithan never gave up despite difficulties
By A. LETCHUMANANsource
Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan (April 3, 1940 – April 30, 2008)
PETALING JAYA: Indian Progressive Front president Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan, who led a colourful and chequered political career, worked tirelessly for the betterment of the Indian community until the end.
Even when he was hospitalised, Indian Progressive Front (IPF) president Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan was still concerned with the problems of the Indian community.
He would always ask his visitors, who included party leaders, about the latest developments in the Indian community.
The 68-year-old, who died at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital yesterday after a lengthy battle with cancer, was always cheerful, and had requested the media not to highlight MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu visiting him in hospital in August 2006.
“I don’t want this to be interpreted as being with Samy Vellu. Let the MIC delegates make their own decision,” he said.
Pandithan had always dreamed of bringing the IPF into Barisan Nasional but after realising the Herculean nature of the task, decided to work with MIC for the betterment of the Indian community.
He had risen up the MIC ranks to become party vice-president in 1981, commanding strong grassroots support from the Indian community.
The eighth son of a Kuala Lumpur City Hall manual worker and a washerwoman, Pandithan grew up in the cramped government quarters at San Peng flats, an area notorious for crime.
He studied at SJK (T) San Peng and completed his Higher School Certificate at St Anthony’s Institute before joining Tamil Nesan as a crime reporter.
It took him many years to build a career in the MIC, but after winning a seat in the party’s Central Working Committee his climb was rapid.
After becoming vice-president and being re-elected for a third term in 1986, he won the Tapah parliamentary seat and was later appointed parliamentary secretary to the Trade and Industry Ministry.
However, he was issued a show cause letter on June 2, 1988, for alleging that the party leadership had failed to fight for the rights of the Indian community.
Two days later, he embarked on a “death fast” at the MIC headquarters’ car park, bringing along a coffin and accompanied by 50 supporters, to prove his innocence. He stopped the fast after 28 hours, following an assurance by then deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam.
He was issued a second show-cause letter for bringing the coffin to the MIC headquarters and expelled from the party in July 1988.
Pandithan then formed the IPF and supported the opposition coalition Gagasan Rakyat in the Oct 21, 1990, general election. He contested and lost the Teluk Intan parliamentary seat.
He unsuccessfully tried to get IPF admitted to Barisan in 1994 and the following year quit the opposition coalition to pledge support to Barisan.
In September 1995, then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad made Pandithan a senator in recognition of the IPF’s support and contributions to Barisan.
Pandithan and Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu met for the first time in 12 years in June 2000, during the campaign for Barisan candidate S. Sothinathan in the Teluk Kemang by-election.
Later, Samy Vellu publicly admitted that he had opposed IPF’s entry into Barisan.
In October 2003, Pandithan openly called for Samy Vellu to hand over the MIC party leadership to his deputy, Datuk S. Subramaniam, saying that Samy Vellu had stayed too long.
In June 2006, Pandithan was admitted to the intensive care unit following a bout of high fever. Samy Vellu’s visit then resulted in the patching-up of their relationship.
He was admitted to the intensive care unit again early this year, and died of cancer yesterday morning.
