MIC Youth chief quits party

SOURCE : MALAYSIAKINI

MIC Youth chief SA Vigneswaran today announced his decision to quit the party with immediate effect.

MCPX

"I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But the president of MIC thinks otherwise," he told a press conference at the Hokkien Association Hall, Klang.

"But with a forced move to remove me from my office in MIC, I hereby declare that I shall effective 3pm today quit as the member of MIC, a membership that I have been proudly holding for 25 years."

And Vigneswaran also issued a challenge to party president S Samy Vellu to similarly relinquish the presidency which he had held for the past 30 years.

"My advice to the MIC president is to leave and prove that you can survive without MIC or be prepared to bury the party," he added.

The former parliamentary secretary to the Youth and Sports Miinistry said the fateful defeat of the party in the last general election was due to ‘an individual' who has failed to address the crying needs of the community.

"Yet the president announces that he shall seek re election for another term," said Vigneswaran.

He lauded the MCA leadership of Ong Ka Ting and Chan Kong Choy for deciding to step down from their posts at the end of their term for the benefit of the party.

"But we cannot expect such noble declarations coming from the immortal MIC president," he said.

Who is ungrateful?

Vigneswaran, elected to lead the party's youth wing in 2002, added he was aware that it has become evident he no longer had a strong enough political base in MIC.

"With the disappearance of that base, I now believe that an unconstitutional decision to remove me as the youth leader has been sealed."

He said that if he had continued to fight the move to oust him as youth leader, that would just be time consuming and of no benefit the party.

"I would be called ungrateful as that is the norm of the president.

"Who is ungrateful? Are people who are in position for four years, one term, two terms ungrateful or the person and family who have been surviving for 30 years on the MIC ticket?" he asked, again making reference to Samy Vellu's long tenure as president.

Vigneswaran had fallen out of favour with Samy after failing to retain his Kota Raja parliamentary seat in the last general election. Vigneswaran was the biggest loser of all MIC candidates, being defeated by more than 20,000 votes.

Once seen as a blue-eyed boy of the president, his fortunes continued to tumble when Samy announced wide ranging reforms in the party, a move that could sideline Vigneswaran further.

The final straw came when Samy announced that Vigneswaran should step down from being the youth chief as he had exceeded the party constitutional age limit of 40.

Vigneswaran, who is 42, refused to do so, on the grounds that he was elected and he would finish his term which would expire next year.

Continue work for the community

After that the party's top leadership has been making silent moves to silence Vikneswaran, finally culminating in his quitting not just his post but the party as well.

"I shall leave this office with regret at not completing my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as MIC Youth leader for the past six years. These years have been a momentous time for the youth community and me," he said.

As for his future, Vigneswaran said that he would mobilise the Malaysian Indian Youth Development Foundation (MIYDF) to uplift the Indian community.

"With MIYDF, I will once again, outside of politics, serve the common good and move toward the ideals and solutions which I believe can build a future of hope and opportunity for us and for our community," he said.

"And to those who have not been able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no bitterness towards you, because all of us, in MIC in the final analysis, have been more loyal and fearful of the president of MIC than the good of the community," he added.