Yup, you read it right. I got the SMS at about 5pm today. Vigneswaran updated his blog as well with his press statement.

Hishamuddin calls it a crisis in TV3 Nightline. A BN component party’s leader quitting the party, not just the post, but the party itself is a big blow indeed.

Vigneswaran gave a very damaging press conference. He really condemned his (ex) boss Samy Vellu, even daring him to proceed with court case. He said that once Samy announced his intention to stand for elections, it made MIC Youth’s work much more harder.

He quits to prove that there’s life after MIC, and openly challenges Samy to do the same. In short he blames Samy Vellu for every problem in MIC for last 30 years.

His resignations is after a two weeks public confrontation between MIC Youth leaders with MIC CWC over the removal of MIC Youth leaders over the age of 40.

Excerpts from his press statement at his blog:

I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office as Youth Leader by defending the purpose of MIC and the visions of its President to every Indian who cast stone at MIC.

In the past few weeks, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in MIC to justify continuing that effort. With the disappearance of that base, I now believe that an unconstitutional decision to remove me as the youth leader has been sealed, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But the President of MIC thinks otherwise.

To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the MIC in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of community solidarity and development.

I would be called ungrateful as that is the norm of the President. Who is ungrateful? Are people who are in position for 4 years, one term, two terms ungrateful or the person and family who have been surviving for 30 years on MIC ticket? As leaders, we should make decisions for the interest of our organization even if such decision is detrimental to us. The organization we serve must come first, not the individual leader.

Even after the fateful defeat of MIC in the general elections and the adverse feedback from the grassroot community blaming not the MIC but only ‘an individual’ who has failed to address the crying needs of the community, yet the president announces that he shall seek re election for another term.

The misery MIC is reaping today is from what it has sown yesterday, and it will not only continue, but increase until it begins to sow today for a different harvest tomorrow.

I salute the decision of the President of MCA, Dato Seri Ong Ka Ting and his Deputy, Dato Seri Chan Kong Choy. Dato Seri Ong Ka Ting who won the Parliamentary seat refused to assume the office of ministership and further today, for the benefit of the party, declared he will not be seeking re election as President. But we cannot expect such noble declarations coming from the immortal MIC President.

Today I would like to tell my boys and the members of MIC that there is life after MIC. MIC will not close shop because of my departure.

Neither will MIC close shop after the demise of the President as no leader is indispensable.

When one realizes he has become a liability to the very organization he serves, then it is only right that he vacates his office for the survival and betterment of the organization.

My advice to the MIC President is ‘LEAVE AND PROVE THAT YOU CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT MIC OR BE PREPARED TO BURY MIC’.

I have always believed that our youth are the backbone of the community and the foundation on which to develop our noble civilization. But I will not use the traditional slogan of “youth are the future” as MIC leadership fails to take into account that the youth wing is a very active contributor to it today.

As a MIC member, I have fought for what I believed in. I have tried to the best of my ability to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that were entrusted to me.

But with a forced move to remove my office in MIC, I HEREBY AS A MAN WHO WALK MY TALK, HEREBY DECLARE THAT I SHALL EFFECTIVE 3PM TODAY, QUIT AS THE MEMBER OF MIC, A MEMBERSHIP I HAVE BEEN PROUDLY HOLDING FOR 25 YEARS.

I shall leave this office with regret at not completing my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as MIC Youth Leader for the past 6 years. These years have been a momentous time for the youth community and me.

They have been a time of achievement in which we can all be proud, achievements that represent the shared efforts of the MIC, the Youth, and the people.

I shall continue to maintain my friendship with my good friends in Barisan Nasional and I shall seek audience with Dato Seri Hishammudin Tun Hussein Onn to see how I could contribute further for the development of Indian youth.

I pledge to all my brothers here today that as long as I have a breath of life in my body, I shall continue to work for the great causes to which I have been dedicated throughout my years. I shall mobilize the Malaysian Indian Youth Development Foundation (MIYDF) to uplift the Indian community.

With MIYDF, I will once again, outside of politics, serve the common good and move toward the ideals and solutions which I believe can build a future of hope and opportunity for us and for our community.

We will not elaborate on what MIYDF intends to achieve at this juncture as its actions shall speak louder than words.

In MIYDF, there will be no dictatorship.
The youth shall make decisions and we shall implement their plans for the betterment of community.
To those who have stood with me during these past difficult weeks, to my youth, my friends, to many others who joined in supporting my cause because they believed it was right, I will be eternally grateful for your support.

And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no bitterness toward you, because all of us, in MIC in the final analysis, have been more loyal and fearful of the President of MIC than with the good of the community.

I have nothing against MIC. My youth here and I realize we have been serving the ‘One Man’ not the organization called MIC. My love for the Indian community does not end with MIC.