More than 200 people turned up at a DAP gathering for Maika Holdings shareholders today to air their grouses and to seek legal assistance over their non-performing investments.

The gathering, organised by DAP's Save Maika Shareholders Committee, saw strong attendance by aggrieved shareholders who were concerned that their investments may have 'evaporated' after almost 20 years of inactivity.

Several shareholders who spoke at the gathering made angry and tearful appeals for a resolution to their predicament.

One of the shareholders known only as Balakrishnan said his family invested a total of RM48,000 into Maika Holdings in 1984 but to date, no returns have been forthcoming from the company.

The former Ipoh policeman said he was assaulted and harassed when he tried to bring up the matter at a MIC gathering.

"We put all we had into these shares. We will never forget this. Now, we want to do something about it," he said to cheers of approval from the audience.

Another investor, 72-year-old R Krishnan made a tearful appeal to several DAP leaders for assistance in getting back the RM5,000 he invested in Maika.

"I came to Malaysia alone 40 years ago from Kerala. Now, I want to go back to India to my family but I have no money. How can I get my money back?" he sobbed.

The gathering this afternoon at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur also saw the presence of a representative from Jaffnese Cooperative Society - the single largest shareholder in Maika with shares worth RM250,000 on paper - as well as smaller shareholders who had invested the minimum RM1,000 sum.

More than 120 individual shareholders also registered with the DAP Save Maika Committee for joint legal action against Maika and MIC leaders responsible for the company's dealings.

Recurring scandal

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.

In 1992, news of irregularity in Maika's management of its funds and assets made headlines over the company's failure to account for much of the RM10 million worth of Telekom shares allocated by the government for the benefit of the Indian Malaysian community.

As events were to unfold, only RM1 million worth of shares were retained by Maika while the remaining RM9 million shares were diverted to three private companies.

Police and ACA investigations into the case then absolved MIC president S Samy Vellu of any blame in the affair even though MIC secretary-general S Sothinathan is said to act as director for at least two of these companies..

However, the Maika scandal has been dragged up again in the past month during the row between Samy and Indian Progressive Front president MG Pandithan who has been leading the call for the MIC president to step down after holding the party top post for more than 24 years.

Pandithan (left) has accused Samy of failing to protect the interests of the Indian Malaysian community and said that the MIC leader had instead made the community worse off through such failed ventures as Maika.

According to Save Maika Committee secretary A Sivanesan, the quarrel between Samy and Pandithan has made it timely for Maika shareholders to push for a resolution to their woes.

"This is an appropriate time for shareholders to ask for justice. We also have a new prime minister who wants to eradicate corruption so he should consider resolving this issue," he said.

"In 1992, (DAP chairperson) Lim Kit Siang raised the matter in Parliament. For that, he was suspended for eight months. DAP has handed over documents to the Anti-Corruption Agency for investigation but nothing has come out of it.

"Now, the police commercial crimes unit have confiscated documents from Maika once again so we have to wait and see if anything comes out of it," he said.

Sivanesan, a lawyer, said a letter of demand would be sent within a week to Maika on behalf of the shareholders who register with the DAP committee today.

Calls to protest

Lim, who also spoke at the gathering, said he had written previously to former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad asking for the latter to investigate into several allegations involving Maika.

"I wrote and asked him to investigate into the gangsterism which was used by MIC leaders to suppress the scandal...No doubt Mahathir had protected Samy all this while. We should ask if (current) Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will continue to protect him," he said, drawing loud approval from the crowd.

Meanwhile, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia academician Prof P Ramasamy said Indian Malaysians should vote in new leaders who are better able to protect the rights and interests of the community.

"At the moment, we do not have proper, dignified and brave leadership. Without new leaders, we cannot solve the problems faced by the community. We are not asking for special rights but just equal rights.

"If this matter cannot be solved, Indian Malaysians should organise the largest protest ever to press home our concerns over issues such as Tamil language schools, educational opportunities for Indian Malaysian children, as well as economic opportunities for the community," he said.

Other individuals who spoke at the gathering were Bukit Bintang member of Parliament Fong Kui Lun as well as DAP leaders T Kannan, M Poonmugam and M Manogar.