The latest incident of the burning Tamil newspapers by the supporters of minister S Samy Vellu and the minister's open endorsement of this act raises more than a few questions. Can a minister openly endorse subversive acts by his supporters?

The minister does not appreciate the contribution of these two Tamil dailies to the development of the Tamil language and the culture. He claims to champion the same. If his is unhappy with the two dailies and has lodged a report or taking legal action, then he should just let the matter rest.

The confrontation was the result of the dailies' reporting of Samy's statement during the MIC Johor convention and Samy's answer to a question on why the Indians did not achieve their 3% stake in national equity as outlined under the 8th Malaysia Plan.

During the 8th Malaysia Plan, MIC was still managing Maika Holdings, a business entity supported by the Mahathir government which allotted it shares in Telekom, TV3 and many other GLC companies.

Under Mahathir, MIC was also given the honour to hold high-level positions such as deputy speaker in Parliament and the Senate presidency. All in all, the party did not manage these opportunities well. I believe the majority of Malaysians will agree with this.

Let's not blame Dr Mahathir Mohamad or the 8th Malaysia Plan. Indian Malaysians must not forget the support and contribution from Umno and government leaders, past and present.

The people are getting fed-up and tired of all these politicking. Enough. Whatever Samy's statement was, I hope it doesn't offend other BN leaders.