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MIC Youth leads protest over Sri Lanka war

November 14th, 2008

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After being snubbed by Sri Lanka embassy in the first round, MIC Youth wised up and got its coalition partners to join in the next protest which was held today evening. UMNO sent about 300 members, while representatives from Gerakan, MCA, PPP, IPF, Makkal Sakthi, and other NGOs attended as well.Â I, for one, never thought the other BN partners will join in MIC protests. For that, I must say well done to MIC Youth. I really can’t remember MIC Youth ever leading any protest with other coalition members before this, so this is an achievement.

Hmm…not sure about DAP, PAS, and PKR members. Never get invitation?

However, I was surprised to see the police not doing anything to disperse the crowd. Borrowing the Selangor CPO, Deputy Home Minister and others of the same ilk’s words – What if some “bad elements” made use of the crowd to cause disturbance? The police should take preemptive action before something bad happens 🙂

Permit? I think we better not venture into that area.

More surprising is the orange color t-shirts worn at the protest. Orange at the moment symbolises HINDRAF. But it seems MIC members (Youth or Putera?) also use the same color for some time now. At the very least, police should have taken in all those wearing orange into questioning and ask them things like : Why you wear orange, which group wears orange, were you at deepavali open house, are you member of hindraf, who is your leader, why he is not here, why you are here, and 1001 other questions. 🙂

MIC also takes a leaf out of HINDRAF’s strategy by including children in their protest. But since its just a day before school holidays start, I guess its OK to bring the kids for some sort of outing.

Oh ya, I’m not belittling the protest nor the war in Sri Lanka. I’m very curious on why the police never do anything.

All in all, good effort by MIC Youth. Hope we see more protests in the future.

mic youth sri lanka protest 141108 old people

Pool of Orange!

Hundreds of MIC Youth members, party supporters and NGO representatives were bussed in from all over the country for the protest.

This time they were joined by about 200 Putera Umno members led by Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim. There were also small representations from the youth wings of Gerakan, PPP and MCA.

Last Friday MIC Youth had similar but smaller demonstration at the same site.

At about 3pm, the crowd armed with placards and banners marched some 100 metres towards the Sri Lankan embassy and gathered there for about 30 minutes.

At that point the crowd had swollen to about 1,000 people, including children.

They chanted slogans such as “Donâ€™t kill the innocent”, “No war” and “Stop the killings” in Tamil. The protestors also donned black arm bands to show they were mourning for the dead civilians in the conflict.

Memorandum handed

By about 4pm, protest representatives handed a memorandum to Sri Lankan embassy officials – as representatives of BN Youth demanding the Sri Lankan government to cease their military aggression.

The Sri Lankan government was also urged to allow international aid organisations into the affected areas and resume negotiations with combatants.

Speaking to reporters later, chief organiser of the protest andÂ MIC Youth deputy chief S Murugesan told reporters that the protestors represented a cross-section of Malaysians who are opposed to the violence in Sri Lanka

Abdul Azeez (left) said that Umno Youth and youth wings of other Barisan component parties had joined the MIC Youth initiated demonstration on the basis of friendship.

“We give full support to this action initiated by MIC Youth especially in opposing the use of violence against civilians and the bombings of hospitals and schools,” he said.

He said that the protest was not meant to be a political action, but it should be seen as a humanitarian appeal for the Sri Lankan government to end military violence.

The event was closely watched by 50 police personnel who did not intervene except to halt the protestors 50 metres from the embassy.

Asked if a police permit had been obtained for the protest, Murugesan did not give a direct answer.

“We have applied for itâ€¦ We were told in that in principle, they (the police) have agreed,” he said.

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Posted in Others

Tags: MIC Protest

Muthupalaniappan to go for it

November 12th, 2008

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muthupalaniappan

Barely a day after saying he is “considering” going for MIC president post, Muthupalaniappan confirms his intention. That’s a very speedy decision indeed, considering he had to consult with party veterans. He was even advised to announce his decision in two or three weeks time, but I guess things changed overnight.

“I am receiving overwhelming support and good words from MIC and the Indian community regarding this,” he told Malaysiakini.

According to Muthupalaniappan, he decided to contest after taking into consideration the interest of the party and the socio-economic condition of the Indian community in this country.

“I shall and will bring change to MIC and to the community,” he pledged.

Stressing on the importance of consolidating ranks and bringing the community together, the 68-year-old Seremban-based lawyer said: “Unity is the key to success.”

Muthupalaniappan also vowed to re-admit expelled MIC leaders and members as well as to reinstate all the closed branches.

This is the meaning of a re-branding exercise, he said, adding that he would be able to bring the different camps together.

“We also cannot rule out younger leaders in the ranks. They are essential to pull in the younger generation’s support. “I would not name any because they might then fall out of favour with Samy Vellu just because I named them… I do not want to disrupt their chances,” Muthupalaniappan was quoted as saying in this article.

Muthu did not waste his time and already started his promises:

He has promised to activate some 1,000 defunct MIC branches and woo back expelled members.
He also promised to settle the Maika Holdings issue, which has been haunting Samy Vellu for years.

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Posted in Indian

Tags: Elections MIC

Muthupalaniappan to challenge for MIC president post

November 10th, 2008

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Well, less said the better. Muthu may not last the race – either not enough nomination, or decides not to challenge, or unable to compete due to various reasons (technical, health, safety, etc). But, really, to even think of challenging Samy Vellu?

Veteran MIC leader Datuk M. Muthupalaniappan is considering challenging Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu for the post of MIC president.

Speaking to Bernama, the former MIC vice-president said over the past two weeks, he met members and grassroots leaders and their “feedback has been encouraging”. “I would not be making any official confirmation on the matter now. My supporters and branch leaders feel that if I announce my intention now, then they would have to face the wrath of Samy Vellu who may choose to expel those who support me.

“I also feel that Samy Vellu should be challenged in the interest of MIC, the Barisan Nasional and the Malaysian Indian community,” Muthupalaniappan said today.

Come March, the largest Indian party in the country would hold its presidential election, while the election of deputy president, three vice-president and 23 central working committee (CWC) seats would be held in September.

Samy Vellu has announced that he would defend the party top post and was initially, speculated to win the post uncontested.

However, Muthupalaniappan bid for the top post would see him throw a spanner in the works, if he manages to garner nominations from 50 branches.

The party constitution requires a presidential candidate to obtain at least 50 nominations from branches before he/she is allowed to contest for the top post.

Each nomination must be proposed by a branch office-bearer and seconded by five other branch office-bearers.

The branch office-bearers would cast their ballots to pick the MIC president, unlike for other national positions which would be decided by some 1,500 delegates to the party’s general assembly.

“There is also apprehension among branch leaders that the president might use his influence to discourage them from nominating me for the top post. I have been advised to make an official stand only in two or three weeks.

“In the meantime, I would be consulting senior party leaders on my intention,” said Muthupalaniappan who is known as Muthu in the party’s inner circles.

The 68-year-old Seremban-based Muthupalaniappan, who is a lawyer by profession, was first elected to the MIC central working committee in 1979. The same year, he was appointed Negeri
Sembilan MIC chief, and party Youth head.

He was made senator in 1980, and two years later, won the Si Rusa state assembly seat and
was appointed to the Negeri Sembilan state executive council.

He contested the party vice-presidency in 1987 and 1991 but lost both bids.

Muthupalaniappan eventually landed a veep seat in 1997 but failed to retain the post at the party’s 2000 and 2006 elections.

What do you think? Should Muthu go for it? Would Samy consider him as a serious challenger?

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Posted in Indian

Tags: Elections MIC Politicians

Government agrees in principle for PNB mechanism

November 9th, 2008

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Another glimmer of success is in sight after the PM and his deputy agreed “in principle” to MIC’s proposal (actually many other people suggested this idea as well especially via media and forums, but never mind, we give the honor to MIC) to set up a mechanism under Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) to increase the equity ownership among Indians in the country by three per cent in 2020, from the current 1.2 per cent.

According to Samy Vellu:

…the matter was agreed to by both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy, Dauk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also finance minister, when he met the two leaders recently.

“The special mechanism to be set up under PNB will use a similar model as the one used to assist the bumiputera community.

“I have asked the government to set aside an allocation as a form of partial grant and loan to be given to the Indians under the said mechanism,

Another success due to Makkal Sakthi I guess – MIC becoming a bit more relevant and improving a bit on their achievements. Perhaps they will even surpass their past 20 years achievement in the next one year itself.

But I still believe that it should be set at 10%, not 3%. Together with the grants and loans, the recipients should also be provided with some education and awareness on what are they getting into. No point the recipient getting RM1000 worth of units, but selling it off the next day to cover his/her daily expenses.

If can, the units may be linked to some sort of insurance scheme as well.

If done properly, this can be one of the channels to improve the financial status of the poor and underprivileged. However, it must be stressed that providing equity sharing is not enough. It will be falsity to think that the problems faced by the community will go away by giving RM500 million per year (yup, I’m expecting nothing less than that!) in loans and grants. There must be some fail-safe mechanism the amount is not misused by middlemen like MIC, or the recipients themselves. For example, we can put a 3 year “no sell back” clause.

Secondly, how to ensure the correct people get the help? As it is, even the poor and underprivileged are not properly tracked by Welfare Department, so what database are the authorities going to use? How about a list from KWSP? Take the employees of estates, public utilities providers, factories. The government’s employees list can also be obtained. From there, filter those who are earning XXX or less per month. This will be a start, but it would not include self-employed or the unemployed (like housewives).

While waiting the “agreement in principle” to be realised, better some think tanks start their research.

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Posted in Indian

Tags: Economy Funds MIC Poverty

teaching of Science and Maths in English in Tamil schools

November 9th, 2008

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As per earlier consensus, Tamil school representatives agreed that English should be used to teach Science and Math as per the status now. This is different from the stand of Chinese schools representatives.

The MIC said it will hold a special meeting with headmasters and parent-teacher associations (PTAs) from 522 Tamil primary schools nationwide to seek feedback on the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English.

Party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said it was important to do so as the issue affected the entire community.

He said the previous consensus among Tamil school teachers and the PTAs was for both subjects to be taught in English.

Will there be a change of heart? What do you reader feel or think? Should English be continued to be used or should revert to Tamil? Or bilingual?

I don’t mind it being taught in English because of the resources available, and the ease in the future when students enter secondary school or tertiary education. Secondly, this will increase the amount of English language time in the school. The students can speak Tamil in school functions and daily activities in the school, in addition to Tamil language period.

However, proponents of Tamil as the medium can argue that materials are available in Tamil, and the possibility of those subjects being taught by non-Tamil teachers (less job for Indians). However, I think a clause can be included that the teacher of Science and Math must be bilingual so that can when necessary the teacher can provide explanation in either Tamil or English. By teaching in English, students will never learn science and maths terms in Tamil anymore.

Whatever it is, we must ensure that the adequate resources are available. No point saying English or Tamil when the schools lacks laptop, projector screens, power supply, Internet, or even competent teachers.

On another note, did you notice that the number of schools has become 522? Is it a printing error or wrong information provided by the Star? From 524, it became 523, and now 522? What is happening here?