MIC president S Samy Vellu has given his personal assurance that shareholders in the party's investment arm Maika Holdings will get back their money in three months.

"Shareholders who invested in Maika because of me will not be cheated. I will never let them down," said Samy Vellu in a temple function in Johor yesterday.

"For those who want their money back, I have made arrangements to give it back to them in three months," he said.

"For all these shareholders and investors, Samy Vellu is the guarantee" he was reported as saying in the Tamil newspapers today.

However the shareholders whom malaysiakini spoke to this morning are not getting excited over the party president's guarantee.

"This is nothing new. I will not believe him until I see my money returned to me," said A Mutthiah who had invested in Maika in early 1980s.

"Like many others I too had to pawn my wife's jewellery to raise some cash to invest in Maika Holdings.

"I remember that even then Samy Vellu gave us this assurance that our returns will be good," said the shopkeeper in Rawang.

Has it served its purpose?

Another shareholder, M Alamai, now in the 60s, had also given up hope of regaining her money from Maika Holdings.

"They have not even paid us any dividends for a long time. Now he is saying he will guarantee the return of my money. Show me the money first. I don't trust him on this," she said.

Alagamai worked as a rubber tapper in an estate in Kuala Selangor when she was convinced by a grassroots MIC leader to part with her life savings to invest in Maika Holdings.

"The MIC leader told me that party president Samy Vellu will ensure we all become rich. I am still waiting to become rich," she added.

Yesterday, while officiating a multi-purpose hall in a temple in Ulu Tiram in Johor, Samy told the gathered crowd that he was ready to give a good fight against those who "are just harping on the Maika issue".

He also castigated opposition party members for making up issues relating to Maika Holdings.

"Let them say whatever they want to say. They can write whatever they want to write. They can lodge as many police reports as they want," Samy Vellu was quoted as saying in Malaysian Nanban today.

"I am not afraid. I have nothing to hide. I will not cheat anyone. All shareholders will get their money back," said Samy Vellu.

The works minister also said that Maika Holdings will show its accounts to all its shareholders at an appropriate time.

DAP's Save Maika Committee chairperson A Sivanesan told malaysiakini that it was not a question of Maika paying the investors in the next three months.

"I am sure Samy Vellu can pay off the investors. The main thing is will he admit that Maika has failed to do what it was supposed to do," he asked when contacted.

"Has Maika uplifted the economic wellbeing of the Indian community? Will Samy Vellu admit that Maika is a failure and be accountable to all the losses?"

"How about the dubious transactions undertaken by Maika, selling of estates and other properties for a loss?" he said.

Fracas at AGM

Maika was established in 1982 purportedly to enable Indian Malaysians to share in the country's economic growth.

The company raised RM106 million in 1984 from 66,000 investors but some shareholders had since accused the company of squandering the capital through dubious channels after seeing little returns to their investments.

Many of Maika Holdings business ventures too had failed to take off. It has only paid its shareholders cash dividends on seven occasions to date, the last being in 1995.

This year's annual general meeting too ended in controversial circumstances when shareholder and DAP national vice-chairperson M Kula Segaran was roughed by a MIC state assemblyman for asking questions pertaining to the investment company's finances.

"All the talk by Samy Vellu has no effect on shareholders. We have heard all these sweet talks before. Neither Samy or Maika Holdings office bearers have answered more pertinent questions," said R Maniam, an insurance agent whose father had invested a large sum of money in Maika in 1984.

"Why can't they show the accounts now? Why wait for an appropriate moment? Maybe they should just admit that they have lost all the money and investors have nothing to look forward now."

Meanwhile, a MIC leader told malaysiakini that Samy was confident of settling the money with the investors.

"We have seen some of the papers (documents) and the president is pretty confident that the investors can get their money back," said the leader.