Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email If the people are showing their displeasure, and needing to have security all around, plus talking to half-empty or disinterested people isn’t clear enough…
On the other hand, Makkal Sakthi/protestors must ensure they don’t overdo it by hurling abuses or throwing things at leaders. This can cause the undecided Indians and other communities to think again if want to support them. It must be peaceful and symbolic protest or presence, rather than shouting vulgar words. The point is not to hurt SV vocally, but to show the dissent in a peaceful and acceptable manner. SV won’t be bothered if someone throws a shoe! He had seen much more things in life.
ELECTION 2008: Commotion during Samy’s visit to BN ops centre in Bagan Dalam
By : Sharanjit Singh and S. Arulldas
source
BUTTERWORTH, Tues:
There was a slight commotion (well, i guess if is becoming common, slight is an appropriate word to use!) when embattled MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu was about to leave the BN operation centre in Bagan Dalam here today. A group tried to gatecrash the function but were prevented by police men on standby everywhere Samy Vellu went. Several women were heard screaming that they wanted to meet him. The group eventually dispersed.
Earlier, Samy told the party’s candidates to toil for every vote as the campaign for the 12th general election heats up. “They have to slog it out. The MIC along with our BN partners will help them by going from house-to-house,” he said. “We will convince voters to continue supporting us.”
Citing the Bagan Dalam and Prai state seats that the MIC is contesting in Penang as examples, he said the level of support for the party candidates was slowly improving. “I am happy that we have recovered slightly in Bagan Dalam where our candidate was getting below 50 per cent support previously,” he said. “It has now gone up slightly and this is good. The situation is different in Prai but it is also recovering.”
Samy Vellu earlier visited the Taman Chai Leng wet market and met residents at a community hall there. The MIC has fielded incumbent P.K. Subbaiyah to contest in Bagan Dalam where the state executive councillor is facing the DAP’s V. Tanasekharan.
In Prai, MIC newcomer L. Krishnan is facing the DAP’s Professor P. Ramasamy in what is fast turning out to be a bruising battle for the hot seat. Both seats have come under the spotlight as candidates from both sides struggle to win over voters, especially the sizeable number of Indians in the constituencies.
Samy Vellu said many grouses and complaints raised by people in the constituencies had been resolved. Among the issues that had been raised were malfunctioning lifts at the Taman Teluk Indah flats which had been out of order for the past few years (PAST FEW YEARS????). The 21-storey flats only had four working lifts in the six blocks housing about 5,000 families who will be voting in Prai.
Samy Vellu said the state government had allocated RM1 million while the federal government had come up with another RM3.5 million to repair the lifts. The government had also allocated another RM4 million to upgrade the Taman Chai Leng wet market.
Asked why the problems were only being attended to now, Samy Vellu said a decision to repair the lifts was made six months ago. However, he said the money was released by the Treasury to the local council before it was redirected to his ministry. “This was not something that could be done in a day or two. Nevertheless, the problem is resolved now,” he said.
On the situation in other states, Samy said he was going all over to help MIC candidates in the campaign. “I am spending one day in Sungai Siput and every other day elsewhere to help campaign for the other MIC candidates,” he said. “I am especially happy with the situation in Johor where the Menteri Besar had taken charge by helping out the MIC’s campaign.”
Samy: Not shoe, they threw atomic bomb
http://malaysiakini.com/news/78725
Beh Lih Yi | Feb 26, 08 6:34pm
MIC president S Samy Vellu today denied that shoes were thrown at him during a recent visit to Penang. Quizzed on this at a press conference in Butterworth, he quipped: “They threw an atomic bomb at me…I threw the atomic (bomb) back.”
However, he conceded that an argument erupted between him and the local Indian community when he visited Perai, in Butterworth, two weeks ago. “Nothing happened. They didn’t throw a screwdriver at me. If they threw a screwdriver, I will take the screwdriver and use it for my car,” he said, drawing laughter from local MIC leaders who were present. Samy Vellu was met by reporters at the Batu Kawan MIC election operations room – one of his three stops at Indian-majority seats during a one-day visit to Penang.
He was asked to comment on rumours that an Indian woman had thrown a shoe at him when he was speaking to the crowd in Perai, which is an Indian-majority seat, on Feb 16. According to rumours, the shoe did little to unnerve the seasoned politician, who purportedly replied to the crowd that he was not afraid of an atomic bomb, let alone a shoe. This was said to have resulted in a second shoe being thrown at him.
The media had reported that some 60 people blocked Samy Vellu’s car while he was leaving the function and criticised him for not helping the Indian community. It was also reported that the MIC president was stuck in the car for about 30 minutes before being whisked away to safety by policemen.
Argument over arrests
Commenting further on the incident, the 72-year-old politician said there was an argument over the mass arrests in connection with the ‘roses’ demonstration organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf). “They wanted me to tell the prime minister to release all of them, I said I can’t do that because I don’t have the power, so that’s the argument. “Of course during the argument, somebody ‘bang, bang, bang’, all sorts of talk. We all human beings, when someone gets angry, they lose their heads,” he said.
On that note, Samy Vellu promised that he would not prevent the people from approaching him to air their views. “When I come here. I am an Indian, they are also Malaysian Indians. I have to allow them to talk to me, I don’t want anyone to block (the people),” he said.
Soon after this, an Indian trader was reportedly stopped by MIC members from approaching Samy Vellu during his brief visit to a market in Perai at his second stop in Penang. According to eyewitnesses, the man who tried to approach Samy Vellu was shoved aside – and almost fell – while police personnel told the man to raise the issue at a nearby school hall, where the MIC president was holding a meet-the-people session.
Heavy police presence
Samy Vellu was escorted by a heavy police presence and flanked by MIC state leaders throughout his visit.
In Batu Kawan, at least six patrol cars and about 30 policemen accompanied him throughout his 45-minute programme with some 200 Indians from a residential area there. Security was stepped up when he arrived in Perai, where a truck of light strike force personnel were also deployed to prevent any untoward incident.
The hall where he held his meet-the-people session was half-empty and some of those who turned up were also spotted in Batu Kawan earlier. On his way out of the hall, Samy Vellu stopped several times when the locals tried to seek his help to solve their problems.
During his last stop at Bagan Dalam, a woman and her family tried in vain to seek the MIC president’s help to secure the release of her son who is being held under the Emergency Ordinance. According to eyewitnesses, the woman later hurled abusive words at the MIC leader as Samy Vellu was getting into his car.
