Fraught with uncertainties
There have been twists and turns in the MIC saga after the Registrar of Society asked for a re-election. The disagreement within the party on how to resolve the problem has seen ROS being dragged into court. On one side of the divide is acting president D
IT has been the season of high drama for MIC.
When the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on Dec 5 found discrepancies in the MIC elections and advised a re-election, the MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel took ROS to court.
That decision however did not go down well with his deputy Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam who wanted to settle the issue the ROS way.
On June 15, the High Court rejected the case and Palanivel appealed against the decision. But the drama continued a day later when Palanivel suspended 15 party leaders, including his deputy, for “acting in a detrimental way to the party’s interest” because they had called for a meeting of the 2009 interim CWC committee.
Within 24 hours, the tables got turned when Subramaniam declared Palanivel was no longer the party president and no longer an MIC member.
He said that based on the party constitution, a member loses his membership when he takes party matters to court. By virtue of him being the deputy, Subramaniam then declared that he was the acting president, a decision which was endorsed later by the ROS.
But Palanivel was not giving in. He insists he is still the rightful MIC elected president. And both sides are holding separate elections.
Palanivel has set July 15 to July 16 for branch nominations and July 24 to 26 for elections.
Subramaniam’s side is having nominations on July 10 to 12 and polls from July 20 to 26.
Palanivel’s group has announced branch nominations being brought forward to Thursday.
In an interview, Dr Subramaniam says it has been exhausting because he has been spending his energy on “a lot of unnecessary things”. He says his is the legitimate election and he has been going around explaining this to branch chairmen.
“We have to get out of it and move towards consolidating the party. The faster we do it, the better,” he says.
How is your relationship now with Datuk Palanivel?
I don’t have any personal feeling of animosity to anybody. What is happening now is purely a political process in which we have taken two different lines of approach. I am sticking to my line of approach and he is sticking to his.
I don’t think that will affect my attitude to him as a person. When I see him now, I greet him and say “how are you” and that kind of stuff. Prior to this, we did occasionally discuss issues pertaining to the party which we don’t do now.
How would you describe your relationship prior to Dec 5?
Prior to Dec 5, I was the deputy president and he was the president and we were playing our role. The only plausible weakness of the relationship at that time was a number of us within the CWC (central working committee) had this feeling that we could have been more included in the process of administration and the running of the party. So there was a weakness there.
Apart from that we had our distinct roles and we would consult each other when necessary. There were some common platform that we sat together like representing the party at Barisan Nasional meetings and committees of which we have to reflect the views of the party and the community. There we had the collective responsibility.
But we didn’t do things together socially. It was more of a professional relationship.
The issue has nothing to do with relationships. In politics, people do have political relationships with some degree of social relationship, which is dictated by the demands of the time. That is quite common.
By and large, I don’t think we had any feeling of animosity.
Now there are two party elections, two people (Subramaniam and Palanivel) claiming to be the MIC president and two election dates. What scenario do you see playing out at the end of July?
Let me clarify one thing. There is only one legitimate group and only one legitimate election. The legitimacy is acquired through whom the ROS has endorsed as members of the legitimate CWC. That endorsement is the one which gives us the power to carry on with the election.
As far as they (Palanivel’s side) are concerned, it is a peculiar state of affairs. Because now they are claiming to be the CWC of 2009 but from the very beginning, it is that CWC of 2009 they had refused to accept.
The ROS had stated in their letter that because the 2013 election results are in dispute, the present CWC (elected in 2013) is not functional. So the best possible group that could undertake a re-election would be the (previous) 2009 CWC.
The president (Palanivel) who was the leader of that 2009 CWC could have easily called the meeting and implemented what the ROS has asked but he went to the court instead. And the court has overruled the decision.
The CWC of 2009 has been meeting continuously and preparing towards meeting the target and instruction given by the ROS not withstanding the period in which the court case was on.
We have updated ROS. We have the recognition that this is the committee of CWC of 2009. How can there suddenly be another group claiming itself to be the CWC of 2009? At the end of the day, it is the legal process. It is about who is recognised. If the ROS says they don’t recognise your CWC, then it cannot be.
But is it fair to put the 3,800 branch chairmen in such a situation? Are they going to be penalised if they back the other side?
That so-called (Palanivel) group knows very well that the ROS has endorsed the members of 2009 CWC. That group claiming to be the 2009 CWC, most were not elected members of the 2009 CWC, so how can they claim legitimacy?
In any system, there can be a lot of people claiming a lot of things. You can’t stop people from claiming. But at the end of the day, the group that can withstand the claims is the one which has the legal basis.
The chairmen are innocent people. I accept that it is my responsibility to explain to the chairmen.
I have been going around telling them “don’t be confused. There is only one legitimate CWC and our intentions have been very sincere and we have been consistent with our intentions from the very beginning.” We had only one stand which is to comply with ROS’ requirements and complete the re-election (for vice-presidents and CWC posts). That consistency gives us credibility. Not a group that says ROS is not right, went to court and delayed the whole process. They went to court because they didn’t agree with the ROS’ decision for the CWC 2009 to conduct the re-election. But now they announce that they are the CWC of 2009 and going to conduct the party election! So what did they go to court for? And what are they appealing against?
We have no intention to penalise the chairmen. We will only go by the list of the chairmen who filed nominations for the elections with us. Once that process is over and there is a group of people who because of the confusion did not file nominations, we will give a second chance. They shouldn’t become unfortunate victims of a group whose intent is to confuse them.
You won the deputy presidency uncontested and Datuk Palanivel won the presidency uncontested, so both of your positions were secure even with the decision of ROS. Why couldn’t both of you sit down and have the interest of the Indians, MIC and Barisan Nasional at heart and come to one election carried out independently?
I was trying to do this from Dec 5 when the first ROS letter came. There was this MIC meeting on Dec 18 where the decision we made was to form a committee consisting of the complainant to the ROS and top leaders of MIC where we would sit down together and find a common solution to this problem. And then we would tell ROS this is how we are going to solve it. I was the one who proposed that formula and the president agreed but that committee was never formed. Such discussions were never done. So we have made every possible attempt, we have repeatedly said “don’t go to court”. Let’s find a solution without going to court. But there were people in there who were bent on going to court. The president (Palanivel) got himself surrounded by an iron fortress which prevented any kind of attempt by people like us to put this in right order. They were bent on the fact that it must be the 2013 CWC that will run the election and not the 2009 – till very recently. Before they went to court, there was tremendous opportunity for resolution. The moment they filed in court, everything stopped and there was nothing else we could do.
In the last party election, former MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu supported Palanivel for the presidency but now he has thrown support behind you as acting president. How does his support make you feel?
It doesn’t make any difference. It is always nice to have supporters, whoever it is. The less people against you the better it is. That’s the rule of the game. But I am also completely aware that at the end of the day, I have to fight this on my own strength.
How much of the party tussle was actually about controlling MIC’s assets?
MIC’s assets are all with MIC. It is in millions. We have lots of land and buildings here and there. All these are under the party and not individuals. We definitely will never let any individual take it. Neither us nor the party will allow it. It is not fair to even suggest that.
Next: Interview with Datuk Seri G. Palanivel