Sam and Pal Get Slapped

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Apr 18, 2010

By Kee Thuan Chye (FMT)

Did you, too, feel the ferocious impact of the Umno slap landing on Samy Vellu’s cheek on Thursday? In a manner of speaking that is. He had, yet again, allowed Big Brother to bully him and the MIC. He had allowed Umno to nominate for the Hulu Selangor by-election a candidate other than the one he had wanted.

Once more, MIC had shown its impotence in the shadow of Umno.

The image of the party that emerged was that of a mongrel wagging its tail at its master after having been manhandled by him.

It was pathetic to hear Samy Vellu voice his support for the candidate announced by Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin – a “compromise” choice of a relative unknown P Kamalanathan, the party’s information chief; a compromise because Umno had wanted V Mugilan and Samy Vellu was outwardly all for G Palanivel, his deputy.

It was pathetic to hear Samy Vellu say, as if in subservience and surrender, “I have promised (Muhyiddin) that he will say everything. Today, we are listeners and will stay behind and listen to his commands and directives to ensure absolute victory.”

It was pathetic to hear Samy Vellu give the assurance that Hulu Selangor MIC branches would not close their operations centres. Only the day before, nearly half the 72 branch leaders had threatened to do so should Palanivel not be chosen.

“MIC has not learned the art of sabotage yet,” Samy Vellu quipped, but it sounded like a lame joke. Would he still have the power to stop any sabotage, one wonders.

On polling day, April 25, it would be interesting to see how supporters of Palanivel and Mugilan react. Some have threatened to cast protest votes to teach Umno leaders a lesson for their haughty attitude: such might well be what Umno deserves. At least it would show that the MIC will not take condescension lying down, unlike what its president has done.

Perhaps it’s time the MIC grassroots hit back, perhaps time to tell Umno they are not the be-all and end-all of Barisan Nasional.

When else and where else could the MIC do so?

Certainly not in the Cabinet where its lone minister is hopelessly outnumbered. Nor at a Barisan Nasional convention where someone like Noh Omar, though merely Selangor Umno deputy chief, can tell non-Malay Malaysians that they should be grateful for being granted citizenship. Nor at a 1Malaysia seminar where someone like Nasir Safar, at that time no less than special officer to the Prime Minister, can say that Indians came to this country as beggars.

In light of present circumstances, perhaps he was not too far off the mark.

The time for reckoning is here: how much longer can the MIC turn the other cheek and continue to be pushed around by Big Brother? Does it have any shred of dignity left? Much as Samy Vellu tried to reclaim some dignity in his stoic declaration of support for what is essentially Umno’s eventual choice of candidate, he still appeared a defeated man.