Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email Earlier, I estimated 30% new faces for MIC in the coming election. Now SV says 70-80% new faces for state seats, which means between 13 and 15 of them. 4 places are already vacant, so who are the remaining ones to be dropped?
30% of 9 parliment seats mean 3 new faces. So who are the ones going out?
Veerasingam? Komala? Devamany? Subramaniam? Nijhar? Palanivel? Vigneswaran? Sothinathan?
MIC to field mostly new faces
By A. LETCHUMANAN
KUALA LUMPUR: Between 70% and 80% of MIC candidates for state seats will be new faces, party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said.
For parliament seats, he said 30% of the candidates would also be new. Samy Vellu, who is also the Works Minister, said the fresh faces were mainly professionals including lawyers and doctors.
“We also have to accommodate some of the party stalwarts who had contributed to the MIC and the community,” he said, addin g that the list of the candidates would be announced after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi gives his consent.
“The changes (in the candidates’ list) are a manifestation of the innovation that is taking root in the MIC,” he said.
The MIC has nine parliamentary seats and 19 state seats in the 2004 general election, securing a 100% win in the seats contested. Samy Vellu said he was confident that the party could repeat its feat this time around.
Samy Vellu said the “new and energetic” candidates would provide the party with “a new hope and a new vision”. “This change (in the candidates) and other changes that are yet to come will also create new dynamism in the party and make it stronger and more relevant,” he said.
He said efforts would be made to streamline the delivery mechanism in the party towards ensuring a smooth implementation of the programs and aspirations of the Malaysian Indians.
He said the party had also taken stock of the feedback from the Indian community in making the changes. “We have not shut our ears. We have been and are open for constructive criticisms and views so long as it benefits the party and the Indians,” he said.
Samy Vellu said MIC would adopt more practical and technological-based methods to uplift the socio-economic conditions of the Indians. “We will continue to create more success stories,” he said, adding that the MIC would place priority in providing the best education and skills training to Indians below the age of 25. Samy Vellu said the party would also strive to lift the self-esteem of the Indians, especially the youths through more workshops and programmes. As for single mothers, the MIC would engage them in wholesale cottage industries and business programmes. “We will also address poverty through self-sufficiency,” he said.
