- Samy Vellu deemed ‘excess baggage’

Philip Andrew, Malay Mail
Jul 07 2008

FORMER MIC Youth wing chief S. Vickneswaran yesterday hit back at party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, accusing him of being the one most responsible for the failure to build up Indian youths in the country.

In response to Samy Vellu blaming him for not doing enough for the youth, Vickneswaran retaliated by asking the MIC president to explain how he had spent the RM20 million the government had given to the party to fund development programmes for Malaysian ethnic Indian youths.

Samy Vellu’s outburst on the problems facing the Indian youths came at the MIC Youth and Puteri AGM yesterday.

“I provided all the mechanism for the youth wing but street fights and murders are still prevalent among Indian youths. What did he (Vickneswaran) do for the youths?” Samy said yesterday.

Samy Vellu said Vickneswaran would never be allowed to return to the party as he had misbehaved.

He further accused Vickneswaran of being ungrateful as he (Samy Vellu) was the one who had paved the way for him to be a Member of Parliament and a parliamentary secretary.

He also went on to say that Vickneswaran had threatened party members and hinted that he would get youths to demonstrate against him a this functions.

In answer, Vickneswaran said: “Yes, he recommended me for the post of MP and parliamentary secretary but that was because I could perform and not for any other reason.

“We started the ‘Hapuskan Jenayah’ (crime eradication) campaign in the year 2000 during the time of former MIC youth chief Datuk Nelson Renganathan and in 2003 I formed the Bridged MIC,” he added.

According to him, the Bridged MIC was formed to help youths who had gone astray.

“They participated in many activities at the national level,” he said, claiming the Yayasan Strategic Social (YSS), the social arm of the MIC, hijacked the anti-crime campaign he started and YSS was given RM20 million for its activities by the government.

He alleged that Samy Vellu diverted part of the money given for youth development and social programmes. According to him, MIC Youth did not receive any funding for their activities and yet Samy Vellu had the cheek to place all the blame facing Indian youths on him.

KUALA LUMPUR: Two former MIC Youth leaders, who were asked to step down from their posts for being over 41, have filed a suit against the party to challenge the directive.

The wing’s ex-information chief K. Raja Kumar and former Kuala Selangor Youth chief L. Sivasubramaniam filed the suit at the High Court registry yesterday.

The two, who are 43, filed the originating summons to seek a declaration that those elected to MIC’s national Youth council in May 2006 be allowed to complete their three-year terms.

They are also seeking to declare that Article 4.18.3 of the party’s constitution that prohibits a leader from holding any posts in the wing after reaching 41 years of age could not be applied to terminate anyone who was lawfully elected to the posts.

Raja Kumar and Sivasubramaniam are also seeking to declare as null and void the decision of the party’s central working committee that all Youth leaders at the branch, division and national level who had attained the age of 41 must relinquish their posts.

They are also seeking to declare that the termination of the MIC Youth chief was null and void because he was elected to the post before he attained the age of 41.

The suit has yet to be served on the defendant.

Tuesday July 8, 2008

Former MIC Youth leaders sue party