{"id":1231,"date":"2008-02-02T00:45:47","date_gmt":"2008-02-01T16:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/02\/02\/mic-seat-swap\/"},"modified":"2008-02-04T23:22:41","modified_gmt":"2008-02-04T15:22:41","slug":"mic-seat-swap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/02\/02\/mic-seat-swap\/","title":{"rendered":"MIC seat swap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interestingly, komala devi and devamany also to be dropped. but our “thala” (head) still remains, and true to his name, takes this as a challenge to win all the seats and prove that MIC is still relevant. Earlier, Veerasingam said no comments, <\/a>now he says will contest in Tapah if given chance. Of course la, it’s a sure-win seat, any tom, dick or harry will want to contest there. <\/p>\n

As for HINDRAF, they must increase their momentum in Perak just like in Penang. By concentrating in indian-heavy areas, they may make the indians really kingmakers. If Sungai Siput, Tapah, Slim River, Teluk Intan, Ipoh areas can be “converted”, it will be heavy blow for MIC.<\/p>\n

MIC in seat swaps to regain support<\/p>\n

http:\/\/malaysiakini.com\/news\/77691<\/p>\n

K Kabilan | Feb 1, 08 12:32pm<\/p>\n

An agreement is believed to have been inked between MIC and MCA whereby the parties have agreed to swap the Tapah parliamentary seat and the Buntong state seat, both in Perak. At present, MIC vice-president S Veerasingam is the incumbent in Tapah while Buntong is held by MCA’s Yik Phooi Hong. Both are considered ‘safe’ seats for BN. Under the agreement, MCA secretary general Ong Ka Chuan is expected to contest in the Tapah seat while the party will vacate its Buntong state seat to a MIC candidate.<\/p>\n

In 2004, Ong lost to DAP’s Fong Ko Puan in Batu Gajah by a whopping 7,927 majority. In contrast, the BN support in Tapah is unshakeable as in the last election, Veerasingam retained the seat with an increased majority of almost 10,000. The swap is made easier by the fact that it is learnt Veerasingam will not be contesting in the coming general election as he has indicated his decision to resign from active politics. However when contacted today, Veerasingam denied of such a pact, adding that “if I am nominated, I will contest in Tapah”.<\/p>\n

As for Yik, he is now expected to put up a tough fight in an attempt to topple Ipoh Barat’s DAP parliamentarian M Kulasegaran. In the 2004 general election, Kulasegaran grabbed the seat from MCA’s Ho Cheong Sing in a slim 598 majority. Sources told Malaysiakini<\/em> that the arrangement was a win-win situation for both parties. “As for MCA, the agreement means the party’s powerful secretary general gets a seat which he can win easily,” said a source. “Although the party is giving up its state seat, if you look at it from their perspective, they are likely to gain two parliamentary seats. One is in Tapah while the other could be Ipoh Barat,” he added. The source said that the party believed it could regain the Ipoh Barat seat from DAP, stating that the ground support in the past two years has swung back to the BN coalition.<\/p>\n

Seat-swapping agreement<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for MIC, giving up the Tapah parliamentary seat could be compensated with more than just the Buntong state seat. Under the arrangement, the party will have the chance to win an additional state seat in Perak. The party now hold three state seats and are expected to contest and retain the three in the state. A party source said that MIC “is in talks with MCA and Umno” to swap more seats and under these agreement “we may actually get more seats” from the coming general election.<\/p>\n

At present MIC has nine parliamentary seats and 19 state seats.<\/p>\n

A senior party leader said that as many as five senior MPs from the party could be dropped, including some well-known veteran party leaders. Names being mentioned to be facing the chop are KS Nijhar (MP for Subang Jaya), secretary-general Dr S Subramaniam (MP for Segamat), K Komala Devi (Wanita chief and Kapar MP) and SK Devamany (central working committee member and Cameron Highlands MP).<\/p>\n

The other MIC parliamentarians are Samy Vellu (Sungai Siput), deputy president G Palanivel (Hulu Selangor ), vice-president S Sothinathan (Teluk Kemang) and Youth chief SA Vigneswaran (Kota Raja). Similarly, several veteran state leaders have also been told by the party that they are to be dropped.<\/p>\n

The grassroots sentiments<\/strong><\/p>\n

Party president Samy Vellu has indicated that he was going to introduce many new faces in the party’s line-up for the coming polls. The problem is that these new faces are not known faces in the presently-held MIC constituencies. They are however well known in their own areas. “There are some new young faces in the party who can reinvigorate the party after the Hindraf debacle. They can win back the community’s support but they are not ready-made candidates to just slot into the present MIC constituencies,” said the source. “As such the party is talking with BN to swap several state and parliament seat to allow these new faces a chance to contest and show their stuff,” he added. He added that changes in the MIC was a must if the party wants to continue to play a leading role in representing the community.<\/p>\n

“With the community still angry and disappointed with their sidelining, MIC must come up with changes as soon as possible to show that it cares for the community and that it can serve the community,” he added. However there are fears within MIC that the grassroots sentiments could be difficult to break this time around, even if the party places new faces in the coming elections.<\/p>\n

Party leaders are quietly worried that the popular votes for the party this time around would drop immensely, a worry compounded by the fact that the opposition might benefit from the swing. “As it is we know that both DAP and PKR have made plans to place Indian candidates in many seats where there are substantial Indian voters. Their plan to downplay MIC’s effectiveness will just be enough for the voters this time around to ditch us,” said the senior MIC leader.<\/p>\n

The Samy Vellu factor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several party leaders privately admit that one way for the party to win back its support would be by dropping Samy Vellu from contesting. However at the moment such a thought is totally unthinkable in the party. Yesterday Samy Vellu held a long closed-door session with all his state and national level leaders, briefing them on the party’s preparations for the general election.<\/p>\n

“In the meeting he did not give the slightest indication that he would not be contesting. In fact he takes it as a challenge against those from within and outside the party who are calling for his head. “He wants to contest and win. He also wants MIC to win all its seats and show the government that MIC is still relevant,” said a state-level leader who attended the meeting.<\/p>\n

Political observers told Malaysiakini<\/em> that this is where Samy Vellu was making his biggest mistake. “He is trying to repair the damage but by continuing to be in power in the party, he is doing the opposite. He is just continuing to antagonise the community,” said one observer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interestingly, komala devi and devamany also to be dropped. but our “thala” (head) still remains, and true to his name, takes this as a challenge to win all the seats and prove that MIC is still relevant. Earlier, Veerasingam said no comments, now he says will contest in Tapah if given chance. Of course la, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[130,114,24,225],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-election-2008","tag-mca","tag-mic","tag-politicians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}