Let me clarify: Malaysian Indian here means Malaysian of Indian origin/descent/ancestry.

So, we got 400,000 makkal not interested or ignorant on voting.  That would be a big chunk of eligible makkal voters.

MIC leaders should register more voters to make Indians “a powerful vote bloc” as this would allow the community to get concessions from the Govern-ment.

MIC president Datuk G. Palanivel said some 400,000 Indians had yet to register as voters.

He called on the party’s 4,000 branch chairmen to get them registered, saying that they should target one new voter each month.

Palanivel said many issues were plaguing the community that needed to be resolved, especially healthcare, poverty, scholarships, allocations and employment op-portunities.

“The Government needs to address these issues because the community is not in the mainstream but has become a sub-stream community,” he said, adding that the community can de-mand for more recognition and help by forming a strong voting bloc.

source: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/6/20/nation/8933538&sec=nation

Wow! MIC got 700,000 members (that’s about 35% of estimated 2 million ethnic Indians in Malaysia). And wow! nearly  40% of those members are not voters!

Looks like big task for MIC to get members registered.

MIC president G Palanivel revealed today that almost 40 percent of the 700,000 party members have not registered as voters. 

He therefore urged all divisions and branch leaders to step up efforts to get these members registered as voters before the 13th general election. 

When opening the 17th Kuala Langat MIC division meeting in Banting, Palanivel said data compiled by the Election Commission (EC) and the party headquarters showed that only 321,000 MIC members were registered voters. 

“We must first get our (MIC) members to register as voters to ensure they will be in a better position to seek assistance from the government or Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership,” he said. 

He also reminded MIC grassroots leaders on the maturity level and changes in perception of voters who were more independent now in making their decisions. 

“They used to support us (MIC) and BN, now we really need to work hard to gain their trust back in order to secure their support,” stressed Palanivel. 

He also asked the delegates to identify all the voters in their respective branches and ensure they were re-registered in the respective constituencies. 

“This will help them in securing better lobbying power when they seek assistance from their respective representatives and avoid travelling to other towns or states to cast their votes,” he said. 

On MIC’s effort to reactivate all the defunct or deregistered branches, Palanivel explained to the delegates that the party wanted to go further under his leadership. 

“We want not only to see a return of old members, but we go further than that by recruiting more new members. 

“I want to see genuinely new faces in the party and lately I’m glad to witness some new members attending our (MIC) functions,” he added. 

At the Kuala Langat meeting, some 120 delegates unanimously adopted a resolution urging the party leadership to secure two cabinet posts for the party. 

Currently, MIC is only represented by S Subramaniam in the cabinet as the Human Resource Minister.

source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/164831