PALANIVEL TO BE MADE A FULL MINISTER

MIC President G. Palanivel is to be made a full minister in a week’s time say PM Najib. In the first instant, Palanivel is never an elected representative; an unwindable MIC candidate so they say, but is capable enough to be made a Senator, and to be appointed a deputy minister. Now, with him being appointed a full minister is like a school boy being granted a triple promotion. But in the case of a school boy, a triple promotion would mean that he must be no less than a genius. I do not know if Palanivel is an MIC genius, but to be elected the party president, then a senator, a deputy minister and now a full minister, he must be someone close to a genius. Or was Najib looking at Palanivel with a blinkered eye?

The announcement by Najib comes as no surprise to me. With the Indian support for MIC wavering, the only sensible thing to do to placate MIC members is to ‘reward’ its President. I am sure this reward does not come for free. Rather it has strings attached and that strings are an assurance that the MIC remains firmly behind (not in front) UMNO and to remain a trusted partner within the BN. Hopefully too, those MIC fence sitters will now be more convince that Naijb is truly their hero and savior to bring the Indian community out of their doldrums and miseries. They say that Mr. Samy Vellu failed miserably in this respect and losing Sg. Siput in 2008 GE, is the only way of venting anger at him.

I have many Indian friends, some since my formative years. I know their inner feelings, although they would not want to spill out their concerns to me out of respect for my own feelings towards them. I know too that the Indian community is generally not quite happy, and in many ways they have been left out of the mainstream of society. This is not well recognized by the government too and being Malaysians and a minority group, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure the community have equal place in society. I think the main failure with Mr. Samy Vellu to look after his community was because he felt he was above all others, unreachable, aloof and wasn’t really at the core of the many issue and problems confronting the community. He was acting like a superstar of the Indian movies, to be praised and garland everywhere he went.

There are many rich Indians like the billionaire Ananda Krishnan, but then what has he done to help his community. He would have provided a few dollars here and there, but surely the community needs more than monetary help. I do not know where Mr. Samy Vellu is now. Is he in hibernation or is he seeking solace in the cool surroundings of Batu Caves? Surely, having been the MIC boss for so long, he still can contribute meaningfully towards the betterment of his community.

I think I know the Indians well, much more than my many Malay friends. This is because I grew up among the Indian community; since my late father was a government employee and was given a government quarters alongside his many Indian colleagues.

I do not know about Najib or whether he ever had an Indian as his neighbor. But I can assure you that the Indian friends that I have are my loyal friends. And for Najib to give Palanivel a promotion (at a time when the GE is near) I think is a good start for Najib to win more loyal Indian friends to his side to lift his winning chance in the next GE. Finally to Palanivel as a full minister, my hope is that he can perform better than his predecessor.

CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION