MAIKA spells misery to its shareholders who appear to have come to a dead end in their efforts to get back their investments.

The investment arm of the MIC is unable to pay its 66,400 shareholders who had invested RM106 million,  ringgit for ringgit.

So, the only thing left for the shareholders now is to taunt, shout and cry hoarse and in some cases reduce  themselves to street scamps at demonstrations — all at the behest of anti-MIC people.

Like last Thursday, when many were shepherded to the MIC headquarters on Jalan Rahmat where Maika  Holdings is housed to demonstrate.

For almost an hour, Pakatan Rakyat protesters and MIC/Maika supporters exchanged sharp insults and at one  point Kg Buah Pala took centre stage.

It added another episode to the years of angry confrontation, denunciation, brawling and, yet another memorandum, riling a shareholder to say: “We have run out of things to say in this two-page memo.”

Shareholders told Malay Mail that they are helpless that no one is able to help them get their money back.

“I don’t think I will take part in another demonstration as inevitably these focus on other matters rather than our
plight,” said R. Sugumar, whose father had invested RM4,000 in Maika.

Sugumar said his father has since passed on and he feels obliged to fight his cause “but I will have to think of
some other way”. Sugumar and his uncle P. Selvakumar say they will not support the culture of street demonstration but instead seek legal options.

Selvakumar said: “It angers me that we were sidelined as both political parties engaged in brawls and verbal battles.”

He was unhappy when told by a certain PR leader that only through regular protests would Maika give in.

“But what can Maika give?” asked Selvakumar, pointing to Maika chief  executive officer Vell Paari’s disclosure
of its poor financial position.

“Perhaps, the government could intervene as Maika has stated it is unable to pay shareholders ringgit for ringgit.”

Maika was formed in 1982 by MIC chief Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu to raise the Indian economy equity but has been a dismal failure.

Opposition politicians continue to exploit the shareholders’ anger over Maika Holdings in an attempt to win over the Indian community.

Thursday’s protest came and went. You can expect another — and another, and another.

Now they blame Subra

MAIKA chief executive Vell Paari blames former MIC  deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam for Maika’s woes.

He said if Subramaniam had not got the injunction to stop the sale of Overseas Capital Assurance
Bhd (OCAB) in 2006 Maika shareholders would have by now got their money.

Vell Paari said he had a firm offer of RM1.75 per share from the RM129 million sale of OCAB but “it’s
all gone now”.

Nesa Cooperatives, a Maika shareholder headed by Subramaniam, was unhappy over the sale price
and obtained an injunction to stop the sale.

Nesa felt a higher price could be obtained and to keep OCAB in “Indian hands”.

The injunction is still in force.

Maika’s debts had rocketed from about RM19 million in the late 1990s to RM63 million currently because of non-payment of interest, default charges and penalties.

Some of the loans were taken using OCAB shares as collateral and one bank, Vell Paari said, has issued a notice for foreclosure.