Samy Vellu Keeps MIC No. 2 Contenders Guessing

KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 (Bernama) -- MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu may endorse his choice for the post of party deputy president, judging from his statement today that for now he would refrain from doing so.
"I will not endorse any candidate for the moment, but in the future I can't say," he said when asked by reporters if he would endorse his candidate for the No. 2 post in the September MIC polls.
It has been reported that the likely contenders for the post would be the incumbent Datuk G. Palanivel, MIC secretary-general and Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, MIC vice-president Datuk S. Sothinathan and the party's former No. 2, Datuk S. Subramaniam, who recently announced that he would vie for the post.
Samy Vellu, however, said he would discuss with the candidates to "come to an understanding" on who should go for the post.
It is understood that the president would favour a straight fight instead of a four-cornered contest for the post to ensure that the party remained intact. A four-cornered fight would likely break the MIC into factions and lead to its destruction, party insiders said.
"If the talks fail, then I will let them battle it out," he told reporters after presenting Primary School Assessment Test (UPSR) training modules to Tamil school pupils here today.
Asked whether he would support his son, S. Vell Paari, who is expected to contest a post of vice-president in the party polls, Samy Vellu said: "I cannot comment on it".
He said Vell Paari had indicated that he wanted to contest a post for a long time but he, as party president, had stopped him for three or four terms as he did not want to create a situation where there could be a conflict of interest.
"He (Vell Paari) has his own following and he has been working on the ground and it is within his right if he wants to contest. I can't deny him that right," he said.
On the situation in Perak, Samy Vellu said that since Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir had obtained a stay of execution from the Court of Appeal today, "we have to wait and see".
"We will have to wait for Barisan Nasional under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to formulate the next step," he added.

tunku : till we have samy in mic, mic will never be strong like they used to be.i wonder why the members can tolerate samy.now he is putting his son in as a vice president candidate.of course he will do his best to make sure his son wins the post.mic members should have shown samy the way out long time ago.mic has a dark future as long as samy is the president.mic with a new president that can unites all the indian parties under them will bring bright future for the community.