5,000 MIC members left Samy to join PKR

Fed up with S Samy Vellu's authoritarian style, some 5,000 MIC members are set to close down their party branches and join PKR in Penang this Saturday.

Former Bayan Baru MIC division chairperson M Nganasegaran, who was sacked from the party yesterday, is expected to lead the exodus and officially handover their membership forms to PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim at the Bayan Baru PKR service centre.

Anwar and his wife, PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail are scheduled to be at the centre after hosting their Hari Raya open house in Cerok To’Kun, Bukit Mertajam in the morning.

With the exodus, MIC, in Bayan Baru as well as in the state, is set to be maimed politically as the division’s present 13 branches of 3,000 members would shrink to mere two branches with 200 members.

Besides MIC Bayan Baru, members from the nearby Bukit Bendera, Jelutong, Bukit Gelugor and Balik Pulau divisions are also expected to close down their branches and join forces with Nganasegaran.

MIC lost its political footing in Penang after both its candidates lost in the Bagan Dalam and Prai state seat contests in the March 8 general election.

The latest exodus would be a kind of revenge by the ex-Bayan Baru chairperson, who was sacked from MIC by its president Samy Vellu on Oct 8.

A copy of the letter which was couriered to Nganasegaran stated that he had been expelled from the party due to his involvement with opposition parties during the last general election.

'Judged By A Kangaroo Court'

Sources said Samy Vellu had particularly taken offence with the Bayan Baru division's endorsement of the Pakatan Rakyat state government’s joint anti-Internal Security Act conference on Sept 14.

The president had raised the issue at the party national central working committee meeting last week and called on party leaders to support a firm action against Nganasegaran.

The meeting then decided to refer the matter to the party disciplinary committee.

However, before the committee could decide on the issue, Samy Vellu apparently invoked the discretionary power vested in the president under Article 61.2 of the party constitution to expel Nganasegaran, who was once close to the former cabinet minister.

The sacked leader was given two weeks to appeal against the decision.

Nganasegaran, who has been the Bayan Baru division chief since 2003, slammed Samy Vellu's arbitral decision. "It's like a verdict from a hanging judge in a kangaroo court," he said.

He was not issued a show cause letter or suspended but suddenly found himself expelled 'out of the blue' from a party that he had loyally served for 18 years.

"Is this how Samy Vellu is going to re-brand and re-position MIC as a relevant political entity for Indians?" he asked.

"He can dream on," said Nganasegaran, who was once an influential political player in Penang MIC.