Big bully Umno shames MIC, slays Palanivel

The controversy surrounding the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Hulu Selangor by-election is the "most shameful and humiliating" episode in the history of MIC, said opposition stalwart Lim Kit Siang.

“While Umno's hegemony in BN reached a new apex, MIC president S Samy Vellu and his deputy G Palanivel completely lost face,” he added.

The DAP veteran asked if there was ever a time in MIC's 64-year-old history that the party's choice was vetoed by others.

“If this never happened before, why is it happening in the long 31-year reign of Samy Vellu?

“This is most ironic. The Umno and BN leadership continue to be blind and deaf  to the message of the March 8 political tsunami two years ago – which is a massive national vote against Umno political hegemony both in BN and in Malaysian politics,” he said.

Lim said Umno is not only usurping the right of individual BN component parties to determine who should be their candidates, but is also taking over their right to determine the leadership in these parties.

“In eliminating Palanivel as a candidate, the Umno leadership has virtually delivered a death knell to the political future of Samy’s heir-designate in MIC.

“The writing on the wall is clear – Palanivel has been eliminated not only as the BN candidate for Hulu Selangor, he has been eliminated as the successor to Samy Vellu as MIC president,” he added.

Khairy adding salt to the wound
Meanwhile, Lim also took Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin to task over his comments which appeared in Sin Chew Daily.

Khairy had said that the selection of the Hulu Selangor candidate must be decided collectively by the BN and not by Umno or MIC alone.

“Is Khairy joking or taking Malaysians for four-year-old children?” asked Lim.

“The BN is a coalition of 14 parties. Is he suggesting that apart from Umno objecting to Palanivel’s candidature, there were others who objected? Can Khairy name them?” he said.

He also challenged the Umno Youth chief to cite a single instance since the formation of BN in 1973 where Umno had acted as such a “big bully”.

Lim also asked if Khairy would accept the scenario where other BN component partues could decide by majority vote who should be the Umno president, deputy president and Umno Youth leader.

“Khairy is just adding salt into the wounds of MIC leaders and members, divisions and branches,” he said.

by FMT