COMMENT S Samy Vellu, the former president of MIC and current special envoy to India and South Asia, said that he would not support the Citizens’ Declaration because he is a strong supporter of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

It is hard to believe that Samy has abandoned his long-time friend, that is none other than Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia and main the architect of the Citizen’s Declaration that seeks to remove Najib from office.

Samy, during his long years as the works minister in the cabinet of Mahathir, was a vociferous supporter of Mahathir; so much there was a prevailing pun that both were ‘brothers’ or that they had some special relationship.

On one occasion he told me that Mahathir was the greatest ‘gift’ to the Indian Malaysian community.

He added that Mahathir had a better understanding of the Indian Malaysian community than other Umno leaders.

He probably said this to me and perhaps to others because he was under tremendous criticism for not doing enough for Indian Malaysians and for being a yes-man to Mahathir.

While Samy used to praise Mahathir as one of the greatest prime ministers of Malaysia, but in secrecy he used to lament that under Mahathir, Indian Malaysians suffered in the country.

While the former MCA president Ling Leong Sik openly admitted that he feared Mahathir to the extent he was unable to raise issues pertaining to the Chinese community, Samy pretended that Mahathir was a ‘god’.

In the eyes of the public, Mahathir and Samy were the greatest of friends, but secretly they hated each other.

Mahathir was unable to remove Samy, despite many financial scandals, simply because of the iron grip that he had on the MIC.

Samy virtually reduced the party to nothing during his time.

Mahathir during his term in office was not vehemently opposed to corruption if such a practice produced bumiputera millionaires.

During Samy’s tenure, capable Indian Malaysian leaders were either sacked or voted out from positions. Deputy ministers K Pathmanaban and S Subramanim were marginalised within the MIC and G Pandithan, one of the vice-presidents, was sacked from the party.

Totally aganst dissent

Samy was totally against dissent within the party. He, like Mahathir, dealt with internal dissent viciously and cruelly.

It was only after Mahathir resigned from his post that Samy was able to garner some strength and courage to condemn Mahathir as the person responsible for undermining the development of the Indian Malaysian community.

As long as Samy was the MIC president, he would not allow the party to progress or permit the infusion of new blood in the party.

For this reason, he was finally coaxed out of his position within the MIC to be replaced by his deputy, G Palanivel.

As long as Samy helmed the MIC, it was disaster for Indian Malaysians politically. The MIC is now better now under the leadership of Dr S Subramaniam, the man who was handpicked to oust Palanivel.

Subramaniam’s performance leaves much to be desired. Like Samy, his administration of the MIC is still mired in caste and crony politics.

Despite accusations that he engineered the downfall of Palanivel with the connivance of the Registrar of Societies (ROS), he has not responded to them.

Subramaniam, due to his own blind loyalty to Samy, cannot be expected to address the myriad problems faced by the Indian Malaysian community.

Samy is an establishment man. He has the ability to warm up to those in power, the way he is doing to Najib.

At least Ling is concerned about the fate of the country, but allegedly Samy does not.

For him, rampant corruption and alleged involvement in scandals of Najib are the least of his problems.

During his tenure, Samy himself was accused of rampant corruption, particularly the way he allegedly diverted the allocated Telekoms share from Maika Holdings to three unknown companies, probably those that belonged to his cronies.

If Samy had thought seriously about the interests and welfare of Indian Malaysians, he would have inked the Citizens’ Declaration.

By doing this, he would have had an opportunity to close ranks with his one-time political colleague and presently, his nemesis, Mahathir.

P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and the state assemblyperson for Perai.