It is indeed sad and disturbing to note that the MIC has been described as a ‘headless chicken running around the town aimlessly’ in a recent (Dec 16) article in Free Malaysia Today. The article has been very critical of G Palanivel’s leadership of the party and looking at what is happening in the MIC of late, the author cannot be faulted.

Anyone who loves the Indian community will be hopping mad indeed when they realise that the community has a lot to lose eventually for all the poor handling of the party issues - as had happened to MCA.

I have been a great admirer of Palanivel and I was all for the prime minister’s brokered deal between Palanivel and S Subramaniam that there will be no challenge for the MIC president’s and deputy president’s post to pave way for a smooth transformation of the MIC to face the 14th general election.

However, looking at the turn of events in the MIC for past several weeks, I must admit that I am gradually losing faith and confidence in Palanivel’s leadership of the Indian community. His deliberate and continued silence on the serious allegations of irregularities that marred the results of the MIC national election is mind boggling.

How can he be so cool about such serious allegations? We are talking about a mainstream national political party here and not a ‘kucing kurap’ NGO election’s results.

If Palanivel is sincere and committed to see the Indian community progress he should put aside his personal agenda and immediately attend to the allegations before the party heads to a disastrous split among the members.

The fact that Palanivel has recently approached former MIC president’s son Vell Pari with a central working committee (CWC) seat offer only reflects his sly political manoeuvring (local Tamil daily news Dec 16). It was Palanivel who booted out Vell Pari from the powerful CWC some time back and why is he offering the CWC seat on a silver platter to Vell Pari now? Your guess is as good as mine.

In view of the overwhelming evidence of voting irregularities that are said to have ‘screwed up’ the national MIC election results, it is only fair to call for a re-election if the allegation are true. If the issue is not settled amicably in due time it will only hurt the Indian community at large and perhaps bury MIC’s hope of ever reaching out to the public any more. This will be a nightmare for BN which is already facing endless problems with its second major component party.

Perhaps Palanivel and his deputy Subramaniam should approach the prime minister for his advice on how best to go about solving this issue before it is too late. I hope good sense will prevail among the MIC top leadership and the members to ensure MIC does not end up as a ‘headless chicken’.