Does Samy Vellu deserve a dignified exit?

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Dec 5, 2010

Why create a new position which would incur cost to the taxpayer? Samy Vellu’s salary, perks, claims and whatever else in the new position he’s taking will amount to a substantial amount. Why does the rakyat have to pay for it?

By Kee Thuan Chye

S Samy Vellu should have no cause to rejoice when he steps down as MIC president on Dec 6 and takes on his new job as a special envoy for Malaysia. In fact, if he were a man who has the slightest bit of self-pride, he might even feel ashamed. Because from the look of it, he has been bought out. He has been told to step down even earlier than he had planned to.

If he had had his way, he would have opted to quit in September 2011, which was what he had announced earlier in the year. Then at the July MIC general assembly, as pressure mounted within his own party calling for his departure, he hinted it could be in January.

But in politics, a month is apparently too long, so he now has to go in early December. Apparently, too, Najib Tun Razak, prime minister and Barisan Nasional chief, knows he cannot afford to have Samy Vellu stay on longer if the general election is going to be called next year. Some pundits say it could be as early as March.

So the deal was made. Samy Vellu leaves, and in return he gets the post of Malaysia’s special envoy for infrastructure to South Asian countries. A position with ministerial status. It is also apparently to give him face, provide him a dignified exit.

But why should the MIC get another ministerial position after its poor performance at the last general election? Where is the regard for values if rewards are given when they are not deserved?

More importantly, why create a new position which would incur cost to the taxpayer? Samy Vellu’s salary, perks, claims and whatever else in the new position he’s taking will amount to a substantial amount. Why does the rakyat have to pay for it?

And if indeed it is to get him to step down as MIC president earlier, why does the rakyat have to pay for a strategic move made by Najib to safeguard his coalition’s position at the next general election?

This is not the only sweetening deal Najib has made in recent times with the MIC. Only some months ago, he made G Palanivel, Samy Vellu’s proclaimed successor, a deputy minister apparently for having left him out as candidate for the Hulu Selangor by-election. That was not right either. It was another case of misplaced values. It was sending out the wrong message to Malaysians, cultivating the wrong kind of culture.

Obviously, Najib wants to win Indian hearts to make them swing back to BN at the next general election, but the means he employs can only reflect poorly on him.

What happens next, when deputy minister Palanivel assumes the MIC leadership with a designated second-in-command, Dr S Subramaniam, who is already a full minister? Will the new party boss be happy with being of lower rank in the Cabinet to his subordinate in the party? Would another deal be made to set things “right”? But why should yet another ministerial position be granted to the MIC just to give Palanivel face?

The rakyat should be incensed by all this wheeling and dealing.