Voters sent Barisan Nasional (BN) a clear message regarding their disgruntlement via the March 8 polls, said MIC deputy president G Palanivel.

palanivel Calling on the ruling coalition to take cognisance of all the facts, he said: "These unhappy voters were not willing to buy our cup of coffee."

"The hard lesson for BN is that happiness cannot be bought by selling development alone," noted Palanivel who lost the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat by a narrow margin of 198 votes.

Voters, he said, were "hurt and unhappy over many big and little issues" and BN must now look at the root causes and address them with sincerity.

"Warnings and counter-warnings cannot be the answer to this question of unhappiness. It might cause more unhappiness and resentment amongst the people.

"Looking at the voting pattern one can safely say that the unhappiness was across the board – a multi-racial unhappiness. All negative issues must be boldly faced and addressed one at a time," he stressed.

While Palanivel is optimistic that BN will be able to regain the confidence of the voters it lost, he, however, pointed out that it will be a slow process. "And the map must be carefully drawn without hurting the voters," he added.

"Policies and even leaders who keep hurting human feelings must be very seriously looked at," he said.

MIC's defeat

On MIC's dismal performance, Palanivel described it as one of the biggest moments of failure and defeat for the party.

"MIC itself must look inwards as well as at other external factors. After all, it was not only MIC but also other component parties in Peninsular Malaysia which had fared badly.

"Maybe we pulled each other down," he added.

The deputy president also acknowledged that MIC did not face an instant storm, "but one that was brewing for quite some time and not seeing it was certainly one of our faults."

Stating that there are "no instant cures" to remedy the situation, Palanivel said rebuilding MIC will not be an easy process "but it has to be done."

In the polls, MIC's top echelon - including its president of 28 years S Samy Vellu - were voted out. The party lost six out of its nine parliamentary seats and 12 of its 19 state seats.

In addition, two vice-presidents, the women's chief and youth chief were also defeated (one of the three vice-presidents, KS Nijar, did not contest).

Yesterday, Samy Vellu said he will now devote his time to rebuild the party and expressed confidence of winning back the trust of the Indian community.

The 72-year-old politician has since also called a truce with his former estranged deputy S Subramaniam for the sake of party unity.