Elect Team Players And Not Part-Time Leaders – Samy Vellu
(Bernama) — MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu moves into his final lap of a nationwide party election campaign here with an appeal to delegates to elect team players and rid the party of "part-time leaders."
"We must not elect leaders who will only come to the MIC headquarters (in Kuala Lumpur) to spend an hour or so to sign documents and cheques.
"We need to elect a team of service-oriented, capable and dedicated leaders who can serve the Indian community and realise their aspirations," he told some 70 Penang MIC delegates at a dinner here on Monday night.
Penang was his second last stop in a two-week nationwide tour to introduce his team to the delegates.
His last nationwide campaign trail will take him to Negeri Sembilan on Tuesday night.
Samy Vellu has named his "presidential team" which includes incumbent Datuk G. Palanivel for the post of deputy president and three new faces for the three vice-president's posts namely Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk S.K. Devamany and Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk M. Saravanan.
He has also named a 27-member team for the 23 Central Working Committee for the Sept 12 MIC elections.
A total of 1,464 delegates will vote in the elections, described by Samy Vellu as the most crucial party elections.
Samy Vellu also took to task certain party leaders who regarded the MIC as "an entertainment club seeking only to glorify themselves" and reiterated that there was no place for anyone with that kind of thinking in the party.
"I have presented to you a team of leaders who have proven track records and are holding government posts," he said.
With just 12 days to go before the delegates cast their votes, Samy Vellu urged them to think carefully before picking their candidates.
"Do you want the MIC to be further hammered in the next general election?" he asked.
The MIC took a severe beating in the last general election where it lost six out of nine parliamentary and 12 out of 19 state seats.
Samy Vellu said he had worked out a formula where he and Palanivel would concentrate on the political front while Dr Subramaniam, Devamany and Saravanan would implement the party's policies and programmes with the help of the government.
