Time for MIC to get back to the roots, face reality
BY: S HARIKRISHNAN
Last night (Dec 16) MIC held a pomp event at a leading venue in the federal capital to celebrate party president Tan Sri SA. Vigneswaran’s 60th birthday celebration.
The bow-tie event was attended by more than 1,500 party leaders, businessmen, friends and other well-wishers of the president with singers from India as entertainment while guests enjoying fusion cuisine.
Only hours earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced a some-what mid-term cabinet reshuffle, significantly bringing in a Tamil-speaking Indian into his cabinet. This is after Indians, predominantly the Tamil community, urged the Prime Minister to appoint a Tamil speaking cabinet minister.
How well R. Ramanan, now Human Resources Minister and Sungai Buloh MP, will perform is for another discussion.
The recent reshuffle has left MIC, which has threatened to quit the Barisan Nasional coalition, in a lurch as Anwar has now fulfilled the wishes of the community.
MIC, the largest and most structured of all Indian parties in the country, has been omitted again-and-again by the Pakatan Harapan leadership, although it is part of the ruling government. This is despite promises made by Anwar in private meetings with MIC leaders that positions will be given to the party to strengthen its reach among the community.
The party now has to pick-up the pieces and start making strides for the future if it intends to stay in the mainstream political landscape. It has to make inroads to all segments and levels of the Malaysian Indian community and not just a select few.
The party has to touch the hearts and minds of the low and middle income earners, who are the majority in the community, as the party now risks being labelled as the party for the elite.
It also needs to change the “exclusive” mindset to being “inclusive” with the community by attending to their problems and current issues. Basically the party should get back to basics! MIC began as a bastion of the community and this is where it should go back to after being distracted in recent times.
Its membership must be open to any Malaysian Indian regardless of his or her status. Although the party has an app allowing the community to become members, the effectiveness of the app is yet to be ascertained.
The party has yet to publicise the app to ensure the community is aware of it, which defeats the purpose of creating the app in the first place. If they do not know how to be members, how are they going to join you.
MIC leaders must now show the grassroots that they are dependable in safeguarding the rights of people and the only way it can be done is to be with the community.
The current leadership has to strengthen the party not only in numbers, but also in knowledge base if it is to survive the ever changing political world.
Many commentators and analyst have said that MIC is at crossroads, either PH or Perikatan Nasional, and this could be true. But the bigger crossroad it faces today is not just that but if MIC can win back the Malaysian Indian community for it to be taken seriously by political leaders from both sides of the divide.