Subra: ‘Veiled attempt to oust me’
\nRK Anand | Feb 28, 08 12:05pm
\nhttp:\/\/malaysiakini.com\/news\/78813Former MIC deputy president S Subramaniam has claimed that there is a ‘veiled attempt’ by certain quarters to engineer his ouster from the party. Although he did not mention names, the veteran politician dropped strong hints that the person referred to could be current MIC deputy president G Palanivel.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Malaysiakini yesterday, Subramaniam said these “interested groups” wanted him to contest against MIC president S Samy Vellu or any other Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate in order to “get rid of him once and for all.” “According to the MIC constitution, I could be expelled if I contest,” he added.<\/p>\n
Subramaniam said Tamil daily Malaysia Nanban – which he described as a publication that is ‘not supportive nor against’ him – had started the speculation that he would be given a seat. Following this, he said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was asked about this on two occasions by non-vernacular newspapers.<\/p>\n
“I have a feeling there is an attempt by somebody inside (the party) with a vested interest to see that I am out so that they could succeed.”It’s a two-pronged attack. One is to see that I contest and cease to be a member, the other is to say that Samy Vellu has overstayed and it is about time he left,” he said. “It is very obvious who would be the beneficiary,” he added.<\/p>\n
‘Never wanted to be a hero’<\/p>\n
Subramaniam also suggested that the media was being used to achieve these goals. Among others, he cited a report penned by a freelance writer which was published in Malaysiakini recently.\u00a0 The report – titled ‘Subra bows out after raising expectations’ – stated that the former MIC deputy president could have become a hero if he had challenged Samy Vellu in the polls. “This is an attempt by somebody interested … If Samy Vellu retires tomorrow, I am not the beneficiary, I am not going to succeed him, I am not the deputy president,” said Subramaniam. “I have never wanted to be a hero,” he added.<\/p>\n
lAsked if he was referring to Palanivel and whether the MIC deputy president still considered him a threat, Subramaniam replied: “I am not saying he is the one responsible for the veiled attempt.” “The articles which appeared (about me contesting in the polls) should have been written in 2004 when I was deputy president, then I could have been a beneficiary.<\/p>\n
“So whether it is a concerted effort, or whether it is being done in collusion, I wouldn’t know the truth. But it is very obvious who the beneficiary (is), he said.<\/p>\n
“Whether he (Palanivel) still considers me a threat, I am not interested,” he added. Subramaniam was defeated by Palanivel in the 2006 party elections. The latter had the full backing of the party president whose ties with Subramaniam had been strained for years.<\/p>\n
Never asked for seat<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Subramaniam also stressed that he did not ask anybody for a seat in this general election.\u00a0 “On two occasions when I was deputy president, I was denied a seat. If I had contested then, there would have been some justification. Now, I am not the deputy president and to expect me to contest is wrong,” he said.<\/p>\n
However, he said there was a “strong feeling” that fielding him in the general election could help reduce the negative impact amongst the Indian community in the wake of the Nov 25 rally organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).<\/p>\n
Subramamiam also stressed that he would always remain a MIC loyalist and had never considered standing against a BN candidate, let alone Samy Vellu.<\/p>\n
He also denied the speculation that he was in discussion with the prime minister’s team of advisers – popularly referred to as the ‘fourth floor’ – to make a political comeback in this elections. “I did not meet with any fourth floor officials, but the prime minister, I meet him from time to time, I meet him casually but there was no discussion about seats,” he said.<\/p>\n
As for his future plans, Subramaniam said he was currently focusing on the general election and would decide on this later.The former MIC deputy president also said that he would be campaigning for BN in this elections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Subra: ‘Veiled attempt to oust me’ RK Anand | Feb 28, 08 12:05pm http:\/\/malaysiakini.com\/news\/78813Former MIC deputy president S Subramaniam has claimed that there is a ‘veiled attempt’ by certain quarters to engineer his ouster from the party. Although he did not mention names, the veteran politician dropped strong hints that the person referred to could […]<\/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":[24,225],"class_list":["post-1434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-mic","tag-politicians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434","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=1434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}