My farewell to Datuk Samy Vellu

The greatness of a leader is not what he did during his term in office but what he leaves behind after his term in office. The great Samy Velu who just retired today after 31 years as undisputed MIC chairman leaving behind a party which has lost all its purpose and trust of the very community it was set for. Samy Velu held an iron grip of the MIC dodging and detracting his opponents and critics. He strengthened his iron grip after every crisis and onslaught on his leadership. All his opponents within the party and within the Indian community were silenced, shamed or won over. He was ruthless. The Tamil speaking Indian community was mesmerized with his fluent and flowery Tamil speeches falling flat into his political trap. He choked, destroyed and brought the community to ruins and this can be seen till today.

In 2008, the cries and commotions of the suffering Indian community must have reached the ears of the Almighty, propelling the overnight emergence of Hindraf, rescuing the suffering community. The political tsunami of 2008, a political novice, in Samy Velu’s standards, flushed away Samy Velu off the political landscape. The rest is history. The dethroned Samy Velu could not believe what hit him and shamelessly clung on to his belittled post of chairman in the party that was almost wiped out by the tsunami. UMNO, the political master and patron of Samy Velu realized, the once upon-a-time vote attracter, is now a political liability. Samy Velu having overstayed his position, shamelessly accepted UMNO’s golden handshake, at the expense of tax payers’ money by becoming an ambassador without a country! A position with ministerial ranking! UMNO’s clever plan to remove Samy Velu, from the post that he was clinging on like a leech and safeguarded for the past 31 years, was done with a stroke of a pen. Bravo Mr. Najib!

Well good luck Datuk Samy Velu, thanks for squeezing and dumping the poor innocent estate workers who have blindly trusted you. You just held on to your chair and appeased your political master UMNO! You have offered the future and fortunes of estate workers during the 70s, 80s and 90s on the racial altar of ketuanan Melayu of UMNO. Today many of these estate workers’ children are either in prison, on the way to prison or realized the hard way of their parents’ folly of blindly supporting you. This is your greatest contribution to the Indian community in Malaysia!

Even the party whose chair you had held for the past 31 years, has lost its direction and control. It is now under the thumb of UMNO president and Prime Minister. The UMNO president now deals directly with the various institutions and sub groups within the Indian community. The succeeding MIC chairman is just name sake. Whatever programs for Malaysian Indians in now handled directly by the Prime Minister’s department in the name of 1Malaysia. You have waken-up the once blind and indebted community into the current political reality but unfortunately the Indian working class has no financial stamina to stand up against UMNO’s bribery and political deception. You have successfully brought the MIC to its knees and a slave to UMNO.