source<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\nKUALA LUMPUR: Indian Progressive Front (IPF) president Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan shocked many when he announced that his long-time arch rival MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu would be the guest-of-honour at IPF's general assembly on July 1. <\/p>\n
Many were taken aback when they found out that Samy Vellu would be opening IPF's assembly as the two parties had been bitter rivals for so long. <\/p>\n
“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was for it when I informed him of my intention,” Pandithan said in an interview. <\/p>\n
The 66-year-old frail-looking Pandithan said the time had come for the Indian-based parties to be united and work for the betterment of the community. <\/p>\n
“There is still lot of unsolved problems affecting the community. There is no point in quarrelling or finding faults with each other. It will not do any good,” he said. <\/p>\n
He started to reflect on his 20-year enmity with Samy Vellu after the latter visited him several times while he was at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital last year. <\/p>\n
Pandithan, who was then recuperating from an ailment at the hospital, said: “I had decided to forget the past and think of the future. He (Samy Vellu) has also magnanimously accepted my friendship without any condition.” <\/p>\n
Both leaders had been inseparable in the MIC but Pandithan, then a vice-president, was sacked after he brought a coffin to the MIC headquarters in 1981 to embark on a “fast to death” effort to prove that he was not guilty of the charges of inciting violence and unrest in the party. <\/p>\n
On the calls by a small group of dissidents that he was planning to dissolve the party, Pandithan, a former journalist, said the decision on the future of the party lies with the members. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Samy to open IPF meet By A. LETCHUMANAN source KUALA LUMPUR: Indian Progressive Front (IPF) president Tan Sri M.G. Pandithan shocked many when he announced that his long-time arch rival MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu would be the guest-of-honour at IPF's general assembly on July 1. Many were taken aback when they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[109,24,225],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-ipf","tag-mic","tag-politicians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}