MIC president S Samy Vellu blamed today "inactive" branch leaders as being responsible for the party's rejection by the Indian community and said that action will be taken against them to rectify the situation lest MIC becomes truly irrelevant.

mic agm 110710 s samy vellu 3 “The inactiveness of the branches is what led to the loss of support from the Indian community,” said the MIC leader of three decades during his winding up speech for the 64th MIC annual general meeting.

Samy Vellu said that the once close relationship that existed between branch leaders and the Indian community has deteriorated because leaders have not been doing their job, thus distancing themselves from the public.

"Not all of them (branch leaders) are functioning. Some of them are sleeping."

"Branch leaders must be active," the MIC chief added.

As part of the effort to contain the problem and help regain the confidence of the Indian community and adapt to current changes, Samy said that he will dissolve the leadership of the "inactive" divisions and replace them with new blood.

"As a solution I shall dissolve these divisions, 65 of which are in the Federal Territory," said Samy.

He explained further that action will also be taken against other branches elsewhere.

Samy said he has also instructed all MIC divisions to hold regular meetings with branch leaders to ensure that they are performing.

New voters targeted

Earlier, Samy said during the debates that the lacklustre attitude of local party leaders has been evident not only in the branches but also in the annual general meeting itself, as reflected in the poor turnout.

samy vellu mic agm 110710 04 On the second day of the AGM, only 826 delegates turned up this morning instead of the 1,500 who had registered yesterday. The situation only improved after lunch when 1,010 delegates filled the halls.

“They must have woken up from their  sleep in their hotel rooms and came in," said the former works minister with barely-veiled sarcasm.

On a similar note, Samy pointed out that many MIC members have still not registered as voters, citing this as another stumbling block to MIC.

"We have 475,000 members in MIC - 100,000 to 120,000 of them are members who have  not registered as voters."

"We need to solve this (only then will) our situation be better," said Samy.

In order to address the issue, said Samy, a comprehensive campaign will be held in all state assembly and MIC division constituencies to register not only MIC members but all Indians as voters.

MIC targets 25,000 new voter registrations in the first day of the campaign to start on August 22, said Samy.