News Focus By Mohd Hisham Abdul Rafar
KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama) -- While the MIC crisis is escalating and becoming more critical, the fractious attitude of its leaders is putting a brake on efforts to resurrect the party and turn it into a force to be reckoned with in the nation's political arena.
The party is, in fact, in a state of chaos, what with party leaders openly at loggerheads with each other and certain groups dissatisfied with the way the party affairs are being conducted, following the sacking of several Central Working Committee (CWC) members by President Datuk Seri G. Palanivel, which has earned the ire of the grassroots.
Due to the absence of concrete solutions to overcome the party's internal turmoil, several party leaders have urged Palanivel to hold fresh elections, as directed by the Registrar of Societies (ROS), to save the 68-year-old party from being deregistered.
MIC TOLD TO COMPLY WITH ROS ORDER
Are re-elections the key to resolving the MIC crisis?
Universiti Sains Malaysia's Centre for Social Science Studies senior lecturer Associate Prof Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said if the MIC had complied with the ROS directive dated last Dec 5 to hold re-elections for its three Vice-Presidential and 23 CWC posts within 90 days, the party's crisis would not have prolonged.
He said the MIC leadership should meet top Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders as soon as possible to discuss the crisis and resolve its problems if it wanted to avoid the risk of being deregistered.
Since being slapped with the ROS order, there had been stark inaction by the MIC leadership to institute any action to comply with the directive to hold fresh elections.
According to Sivamurugan, having re-elections would be best recourse to resolving the MIC crisis.
"As soon as new elections are held, all the newly elected leaders should stop politicking and focus their attention on helping the Indian community to develop," he told Bernama.
Former Penang MIC Youth head, J. Dhinagaran, shared Sivamurugan's views, saying that party members were highly enthusiastic about rehabilitating the party.
"If fresh elections had been carried out as per the ROS directive, the matter would have been resolved," he told Bernama.
Dhinagaran was among the CWC members elected for the 2013-2016 term before the election was ruled as invalid by the ROS.
He was also confident that the re-elections would serve to strengthen and consolidate the MIC and enable the newly-elected leaders to carry out their community-upliftment work more effectively.
UNILATERAL APPROACH
The MIC is running out of time. And, Sivamurugan opined that the MIC President's unilateral approach of resolving the party crisis without consulting the top brass has aggravated the turmoil.
"The deputy president, vice-presidents and CWC members don't know what their president is up to because he is not involving them in his efforts to resolve the crisis faced by the party.
"What I can conclude is that the situation had become this serious due to a communication crisis among the leaders," he said.
Dhinagaran, meanwhile, claimed that a third party was complicating the matter by wielding enormous influence over the party president's decisions and actions.
"As the president, he should make decisions on his own without the interference of outsiders. I hope the president makes some decisions quickly for the good of MIC," he added.
Palanivel had in a statement today said that he and his deputy, Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, would stand-down to resolve the party feud.
"We will have a moratorium. I do not want the party crisis to escalate," Palanivel said in the statement, adding that the moratorium would allow both his and Subramaniam's factions to meet with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also BN Chairman.
MIC'S DEREGISTRATION WILL HAVE IMPLICATIONS ON BN
In the event the MIC is deregistered by the ROS for failing to comply with its orders, what will the implications be for the BN?
Commenting on this, Sivamurugan said the MIC should have by now learnt a lesson from Umno as the latter had undergone the bitter experience of being deregistered in 1988.
"It's easy to demolish a party but rebuilding it takes years. Umno had gone through that experience and, by right, the MIC should learn from that.
"MIC should not allow itself to be deregistered...because rebuilding the party will require big changes to be made," he said.
BN Deputy Chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was reported as saying today that the BN leadership would help the MIC to resolve its crisis and strengthen the party.
Muhyiddin said if the crisis was left to fester, it would not only affect the party but the BN too.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he would meet ROS together with the MIC president and his deputy early next week to seek more clarification on its directive to the party to hold fresh elections.
-- BERNAMA
KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama) -- While the MIC crisis is escalating and becoming more critical, the fractious attitude of its leaders is putting a brake on efforts to resurrect the party and turn it into a force to be reckoned with in the nation's political arena.
The party is, in fact, in a state of chaos, what with party leaders openly at loggerheads with each other and certain groups dissatisfied with the way the party affairs are being conducted, following the sacking of several Central Working Committee (CWC) members by President Datuk Seri G. Palanivel, which has earned the ire of the grassroots.
Due to the absence of concrete solutions to overcome the party's internal turmoil, several party leaders have urged Palanivel to hold fresh elections, as directed by the Registrar of Societies (ROS), to save the 68-year-old party from being deregistered.
MIC TOLD TO COMPLY WITH ROS ORDER
Are re-elections the key to resolving the MIC crisis?
Universiti Sains Malaysia's Centre for Social Science Studies senior lecturer Associate Prof Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said if the MIC had complied with the ROS directive dated last Dec 5 to hold re-elections for its three Vice-Presidential and 23 CWC posts within 90 days, the party's crisis would not have prolonged.
He said the MIC leadership should meet top Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders as soon as possible to discuss the crisis and resolve its problems if it wanted to avoid the risk of being deregistered.
Since being slapped with the ROS order, there had been stark inaction by the MIC leadership to institute any action to comply with the directive to hold fresh elections.
According to Sivamurugan, having re-elections would be best recourse to resolving the MIC crisis.
"As soon as new elections are held, all the newly elected leaders should stop politicking and focus their attention on helping the Indian community to develop," he told Bernama.
Former Penang MIC Youth head, J. Dhinagaran, shared Sivamurugan's views, saying that party members were highly enthusiastic about rehabilitating the party.
"If fresh elections had been carried out as per the ROS directive, the matter would have been resolved," he told Bernama.
Dhinagaran was among the CWC members elected for the 2013-2016 term before the election was ruled as invalid by the ROS.
He was also confident that the re-elections would serve to strengthen and consolidate the MIC and enable the newly-elected leaders to carry out their community-upliftment work more effectively.
UNILATERAL APPROACH
The MIC is running out of time. And, Sivamurugan opined that the MIC President's unilateral approach of resolving the party crisis without consulting the top brass has aggravated the turmoil.
"The deputy president, vice-presidents and CWC members don't know what their president is up to because he is not involving them in his efforts to resolve the crisis faced by the party.
"What I can conclude is that the situation had become this serious due to a communication crisis among the leaders," he said.
Dhinagaran, meanwhile, claimed that a third party was complicating the matter by wielding enormous influence over the party president's decisions and actions.
"As the president, he should make decisions on his own without the interference of outsiders. I hope the president makes some decisions quickly for the good of MIC," he added.
Palanivel had in a statement today said that he and his deputy, Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, would stand-down to resolve the party feud.
"We will have a moratorium. I do not want the party crisis to escalate," Palanivel said in the statement, adding that the moratorium would allow both his and Subramaniam's factions to meet with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also BN Chairman.
MIC'S DEREGISTRATION WILL HAVE IMPLICATIONS ON BN
In the event the MIC is deregistered by the ROS for failing to comply with its orders, what will the implications be for the BN?
Commenting on this, Sivamurugan said the MIC should have by now learnt a lesson from Umno as the latter had undergone the bitter experience of being deregistered in 1988.
"It's easy to demolish a party but rebuilding it takes years. Umno had gone through that experience and, by right, the MIC should learn from that.
"MIC should not allow itself to be deregistered...because rebuilding the party will require big changes to be made," he said.
BN Deputy Chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was reported as saying today that the BN leadership would help the MIC to resolve its crisis and strengthen the party.
Muhyiddin said if the crisis was left to fester, it would not only affect the party but the BN too.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he would meet ROS together with the MIC president and his deputy early next week to seek more clarification on its directive to the party to hold fresh elections.
-- BERNAMA
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