It’s best for Samy to do a Koh
The MIC has taken its worst beating to date and many blame party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu for it but it remains to be seen what the party will do now.
IN victory and defeat, former Penang chief minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, an academic turn politician, is always humble and high-minded.
After he and his Gerakan colleagues were unceremoniously shown the door on Saturday, Dr Koh’s first worry was for the incoming government of rival Lim Guan Eng to take office in a smooth and safe manner.
He immediately issued a “don’t worry” statement and offered to take responsibility for the change over.
He invited Guan Eng to his office and showed him around and pledged his help for a smooth transition.
What’s more telling, Dr Koh admitted defeat, took responsibility for the Gerakan disaster and offered to resign.
In stark contrast MIC President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, who was equally trounced with his candidates, has vowed to soldier on.
In a statement he said he will “restructure and rebuild” the MIC, which has become totally cut off from the Tamil masses.
He also speaks of a “new wave” that will come and lift him and the party from the disaster that has hit them.
If only Samy Vellu heads to a tea stall and hear what ordinary Malaysians, not just Indians, are saying he would have a second shock, bigger than the drubbing in Sungai Siput.
The only thing that matters to many ordinary Indians is not that the Opposition had captured five states or the Barisan Nasional was denied its two-third majority in parliament, but that Samy Vellu has been defeated.
They rejoiced at his defeat because he has become the focal point of all their sufferings and anger and for him to soldier on shows how disconnected he has become with the community he claims to represent.
Only three of his candidates survived and three is not enough to fill the party’s quota of one minister, three deputy ministers and three parliamentary secretaries.
“People are angry with him more than anything else. He has been lording over us for 30 years,” said teacher A. Perumal.
Others chipped into the conversation saying most of the MIC candidates lost because the voters did not see the candidates but saw Samy Vellu in all of them.
“They did not distance themselves from him. If they had, some could have survived,” said another teacher Thomas Arulpragasam.
“The community needs to heal, to see new faces leading us, to hear new voices giving new hope,” he said.
Why then is Samy Vellu refusing to accept responsibility and offering to quit like Dr Koh has done?
Unlike Dr Koh and Gerakan, it is even more difficult, with the MIC defeated and smashed, for Samy Vellu to walk away, his supporters say.
“He feels if he quits now history will remember him as the man who destroyed the MIC,” said the former vice-president who did not want to be named.
Some others say if Samy Vellu, who dominated MIC politics for so long, quits immediately the party will be hit by turmoil.
Whatever the case for Samy Vellu, it is too late in the day to reshape history and reverse the nightmare of defeat and disgrace that has fallen on him and the MIC.
The best course is to walk the path Dr Koh has taken - accept responsibility and retire and let the man who takes over do the “rebuilding and restructuring” that the MIC sorely needs if it wants to survive as a political representative of the Indian community.
To stay on is untenable and will only complicate and worsen matters.
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