KUALA LUMPUR: MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu today maintained that the party was not against the Barisan Nasional's (BN) proposed open membership system but stressed that he would still have to gauge
the feelings of party members on the proposal.

He said the MIC, being the third largest BN component party, did not object to the proposal mooted by Prime Minister and BN chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the BN Supreme Council meeting on Feb 19.

KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC is to propose to the government to set up the Malaysian Indian Development Agency (Minda) to monitor and implement the government’s initiatives for the Indian community, especially under the Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP).

Party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said Minda would be a government agency and would complement the Special Cabinet Committee for the Development of Indians chaired by the prime minister.

KUALA LUMPUR: A high-ranking MIC leader allegedly authorised the purchase of RM1 million worth of books for Tamil schools nationwide, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) learnt yesterday.

Sources said former MIED Capital Sdn Bhd chairman Tan Sri M. Mahalingam told MACC officers that the sum came from Maju Institute for Education Development (MIED), which is under investigation.

THE MIC today launched a nationwide evaluation exercise on its leaders at all levels aimed at creating a "winning team" and organising programmes cutting across racial lines to face the next general election.

Party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the MIC was determined to "reinvent and re-energise" the party to remain relevant and wrest back the six parliamentary and 12 states seats it lost in the last general election.

THE much-anticipated defamation suit by MIC leader Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu against the late charismatic Tamil writer Athi Kumanan has fizzled out. Samy Vellu chose not to contest allegations by Athi Kumanan in 11 articles in the Tamil daily Malaysia Nanban in 2003 that Samy Vellu was a liar, thief and criminal.

 

PARTY leaders want the statement pertaining to MIC’s education arm, Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED), that was released following a CWC meeting last Thursday to be minuted.

“I insisted that it be minuted and if it is not then I will take it up again at the next meeting,” said CWC member
Datuk S. Ganesan.

A media statement, issued after the meeting, said “the ownership between the MIC and MIED will be a perpetual relationship and will be a part of the MIC”.

 

TWO versions on the relationship between the MIC and its education arm, Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED), have emerged following a Samy-Samy clash during the MIC Central Working Committee
meeting (CWC) last Thursday.

 

The argument between party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and newly-elected CWC member K.P. Samy
threw up the two accounts.

TWO versions on the relationship between the MIC and its education arm, Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED), have emerged following a Samy-Samy clash during the MIC Central Working Committee meeting (CWC) last Thursday.

The argument between party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and newly-elected CWC member K.P. Samy threw up the two accounts.

Version One that came out of the CWC meeting still indicates MIED - that operates the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST), the nation’s first private university - does not belong to the MIC.

Suspended MIC branch chief S. Chandran will continue to criticise the party leadership for the sake of its future.

“If we are not critical, then others outside the party will do it for us and that is already happening,” said Chandran, who was suspended for 12 months for what the disciplinary committee described “as tarnishing the party's image".