Samy: No reason for Dr M to sack me

RK Anand
Works Minister and MIC President S Samy Vellu said that he was cleared of all corruption allegations by the Anti-Corruption Agency and as such there were no reasons for him to be sacked from the cabinet.
“As for as I know, Dr Mahathir knew about the three-month investigations by the ACA which was a result of several reports by some people,” said Samy Vellu at a press conference at the MIC annual general assembly this morning.
“I was cleared of whatever allegations made against me and there was no reason to sack me from the cabinet as a result of those allegations,” he added.
“If these allegations of corruption against me were proven in the court, I would have stepped down voluntarily,” he added.
Samy Vellu said this while responding to remarks made by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in an interview with malaysiakini recently that he was powerless in sacking ministers who were tainted by corruption scandals.
Telekom shares scandal
Mahathir said the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional would have suffered a serious internal backlash if he had sacked Samy Vellu.
“You ask MIC what they would do if I removed Samy Vellu,” said Mahathir when queried why he did not sack his long-time works minister, who was beset by numerous allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
“MIC is scared stiff of Samy Vellu,” added Mahathir, who as leader of the dominant Umno party led the BN coalition in his 22-year tenure as prime minister.
“When it comes to the head of a component party, I don’t have that much liberty to pick who the head should be or to remove the head from being in the cabinet,” he told malaysiakini in the exclusive interview.
“You can see that all the heads of all the component parties are in the cabinet, not because I chose them, but because they were chosen by their party.”
Samy Vellu, one of the longest serving cabinet members, has been for long besieged by the scandal pertaining to the RM120 million Telekom shares given to the upliftment of the Indian community in 1990.
It has been alleged that the nine million Telekom shares were not properly channeled to the community but were diverted to three little known companies.
‘That’s his business’
Samy Vellu today came out defending himself against the accusations of these shares being misused, saying that it was unhealthy to simply label someone as corrupt.
“You just can’t say the minister is corrupt, the government is corrupt. All these talks are not good for the government,” he added.
He said that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also knew about the ACA investigations on him.
“After three months of investigations, the ACA said I did nothing wrong,” he stressed.
When asked if he was upset with Mahathir for making such a remark now, Samy Vellu said: “I don’t want to say anything about him”.
“He can do anything he likes. That’s his business,” he added.
“He said that many people in the world are saying Malaysia is corrupt. That is not true… there must be a limitation to this kind of criticism.”

tunku : well semi value(samy vellu), if Tun is making a false statement, why don't you challenge it.the whole world knows about you, you are the indian god in malaysia and untouchable.you are upset when many people in the world are saying Malaysia is corrupt, well truth is we are.Corruption are at it's best right now. You said that when you resign you'll shut your mouth, in other way you are telling Tun Mahathir to shut his mouth. well there is a very big difference between you and Tun Mahathir. He can open his mouth now as there's nothing you can do to shut his mouth, but i am sure if you open your mouth after you resign, there's 1001 things can be brought up against you.that's is why you will shut your mouth.
I believe what Tun had said earlier was responding to reporters question during the interview of why can't he sack the minister and Tun just said that he just can't sack a component party leader without any solid proof as it will create a chaotic situation as they are the leader of their respective race.