vox populi small thumbnail 'All MIC leaders should open their mouth and get sacked until the last remaining member is Samy Vellu. Indians can then start re-building their party.'

Harrisman: Anyone who opens his mouth voicing a slight doubt about MIC president S Samy Vellu will be sacked. So, all MIC leaders should open their mouth and get sacked until the last remaining member is Samy. Indians can then start re-building their party.

Firefly: Sack the whole CWC (central working committee). This is how East European communist dictatorships were run. Only, unlike (Nicolae) Ceausescu, there is no need for helicopter escapes and there is no firing squad behind the Mines Convention Centre or in Sungai Siput.

Be patient. Rome was not built in a day. They said GAS would not happen, but it did and the showing was commendable. The MIC problem is a particular sub-set of the political landscape, which requires particular fixing.

This current MIC president makes a plaything of his community and his place in the party. Except for Sarawak in some ways, there is no current precedent in Malaysia for this scenario. Both he and his progeny need the boot. Subtlety is wasted with some individuals, and this is a case in point.

Between the uneducated Indian poor, whose naivete keeps them backing the MIC president and the educated Indians, who have given up on politics altogether, it is commendable to see individuals civic-minded enough to say the obvious and try do something about it.

Samy, you have done all the good you can do, just go.

Anonymous: S Murugessan, your political value has just risen. Stand on any ticket and the people know that you will be with them. I never knew that I would say it - congratulations on your sacking. Many professionals refuse to join MIC because of the company they have to keep - the likes of Samy Vellu.

Ram: Bravo. I know that Murugessan has expected this to happen. What is important is he stood for what he believed in. Murugessan, you have not lost the post of secretary-general but the MIC has lost a good, intelligent person. So walk with your head up ... you have done nothing wrong, not like the others who feel that party and government positions are more important than a clear conscience.

Rayfire: This (Murugessan's sacking) goes to show stupidity knows no bounds. If this trend continues, MIC will have no one but Samy Vellu left in it. The members have tried to tell you indirectly, directly, upside down, inside out, hidden or straight to your face, if it still doesn't sink into your permanent toupee-covered head, I have no mercy for you. GAS be my guest, and kick him out for good.

Kgen: It's surprising how many people think getting rid of Samy Vellu is the cure for the Indian community or will bring Indian votes back to BN. This is just a power struggle within MIC, nothing more.

Will another MIC president be able to change the status quo of MIC in relation to Umno? The real problem bedeviling the Indian community is the slew of racial policies which limit economic, education and employment opportunity for minority races and allocate the bulk of national resources to the majority race.

No MIC or MCA leader can change this.

Rob Bird: There is little support for GAS - Samy Vellu will rule for another 50 years...

Najib vows to never betray NEP

Sulaiman Hikmat: Prime Minister Najib Razak's father promised that after 1990, all will be equal. He said, and I state, that if after 1990 the Malays do not catch up, the nation can't wait for them. If Najib does the opposite, he makes his father a liar.

Ruben Antony Soosay: Well, our prime minister is trying to please all Malaysians at the same time by promising the Bumiputera Economic Congress - with Ibrahim Ali, the self-proclaimed Malay champion at the helm - that he would not betray the NEP.

David Dass: Our nation is confronted with a dilemma. There was a time when the Malays were so backward relative to the Chinese that the NEP was considered necessary to ensure peace and stability. That was after May 13, 1969. The nation was numb with shock at that point in time.

Forty years on, the Malays have made substantial progress, the economy has grown tremendously, and there is a large middle-class, a large Malay professional class and an increasing number of Malay entrepreneurs.

The number of universities has grown from two to more than 50 with about a million undergraduates - more than half of whom are Malay. In that same time, the Chinese and Indian numbers in government service and the security forces have declined substantially and polarisation of the races has become marked with 96 percent of Chinese kids attending Chinese schools and 50 percent of Indian kids attending Tamil schools.

It has also become clear that Indians and other minorities are marginalised and the unequal distribution of wealth is an issue.

The NEM (New Economic Mode) was mainly formulated by a team of economists to deal with the needs of the economy. Our national debt has grown, our deficit is large. We will be the next Greece , says a respected professor from London School of Economics. We will be bankrupt by 2019, says Idris Jala, if subsidies are not removed. Both foreign and private domestic investment are low.

There is a drain on talent affecting our ability to move into higher level industry. An environment has to be created to encourage and incentivise entrepreneurial activity. There is worldwide competition for talent and for capital. Young Malaysians, both Malay and non-Malay, are moving off-shore for better pay and for the opportunity of doing work unavailable here. Many Malaysians are migrating.

The strident rhetoric of racial hatred is scaring people away. There are some like Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa who cannot visualise a Malaysia where all races work together for the common good. So our dilemma is which direction do we go? And what are our choices?

Multi Racial: As a prime minister, he should not play racial card. He should help Malaysians regardless of race. He should ban racial politics, racist NGOs and charge anyone who provoke racial disharmony. I believe he is doing the complete opposite.

How can Najib unite the country when he is pursuing divisive politics? Malaysians have no choice but to take upon themselves to vote for unity in the next general election.

Isaac Ho: Najib, no one would expect you to betray your Malay brethren. However, everyone expects you to implement policies that would treat all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, fairly to rectified the social injustice prevalent in Malaysia today.

Hence, your concept of 1Malaysia is nothing but a con job on all Malaysians.

Matthew Yeoh: I attended the March 30 event when Najib launched the NEM in the presence of a large contingent of local and foreign journalists, diplomats, businessmen. He gave a speech that lasted more than an hour and said clearly at one point that the NEP will be replaced, that the days when affirmative policies for specific groups based on race and community is over.

The direction the government would take to help the poor and needy is on a needs-based policy. That is what the NEM was supposed to do, according to his speech. Then Amirsham Aziz (National Economic Advisory Council chair) came on stage and related the detailed work the NEAC had done to draw up the NEM. I even had a CD of the whole NEM, which if printed out would be about the thickness of a phone directory.

Now Najib is saying that he will not betray the NEP. Isn't this another flip-flop? Why bother having the official launch of the NEM, if it is not finalised and is still in the process of development. Why have that two-day event at the Shangri-La costing millions of ringgit? Silly.

Dood: It's quite telling what Najib's true intentions are by attending the gathering of racists and the things he said there. But then again, he's the leader of the biggest racist party in the country, so I'm not entirely surprised.

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