Samy: I made a costly mistake
“Najib is the prime minister, the number one man in the country. He can say ‘I want this man, I don’t want any change’. I would have said, ‘Bye-bye sir’. And that would have been the end.
By RK Anand, Free Malaysia Today
EXCLUSIVE KUALA KUBU BARU: MIC president S Samy Vellu admitted making a “costly mistake” by jumping the gun to name his deputy G Palanivel as the candidate for the Hulu Selangor by-election. In an exclusive interview with FMT this evening, the 74-year-old politician, who was in high spirits and a picture of health, explained the “confusion” surrounding the party’s candidate.
The interview was held at Palanivel’s former service centre, where the shelves were still littered with copies of a book on the MIC deputy president.
Palanivel was the four-term MP for Hulu Selangor prior to his defeat in the 2008 general election and it looked almost certain that he would run again for the seat in this by-election.
But the Barisan Nasional leadership decided otherwise. After days of haggling, he was dropped in favour of MIC information chief P Kamalanathan at the eleventh hour.
Following this, certain quarters had blamed Samy Vellu for irking Umno by being too quick – within 24 hours after the death of the Hulu Selangor incumbent – to name Palanivel as the candidate, a task normally reserved for the BN chairman.
Tremendous mental strain
Flanked by former MIC vice-president S Sothinathan, Samy Vellu expressed regret over the turn of events, but stressed that his action had no bearing on Palanivel’s fate.
“Yes, that was a mistake (to jump the gun). I had told the prime minister (Najib Tun Razak, who is also the BN chairman) this. When you are in the wrong, admit it quick and empathatically. It was a very costly mistake as well.
“If I had not done that, we could have got things through much easily,” he said.
On the speculation that he had done this deliberately to “kill off” Palanivel in order to pave the way for Sothinathan to ascend to the number two spot, Samy Vellu quipped, “Yes. I admit. I did it.”
This prompted Sothinathan to clarify, just to be on the safe side, that the president was only joking.
Sothinathan had gone against Samy Vellu, whom he described as his mentor, to contest against Palanivel for the deputy presidency in last year’s party election.
The master and disciple have since patched up, leading some to believe that a new pact had been formed to annihilate Palanivel, whose ties with Samy Vellu is said to be on rocky ground.
