PETALING JAYA: It was vintage MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu at the Selangor MIC annual general meeting yesterday where he fielded questions, sang songs and gave his opinion in his usual sarcastic and jovial manner.

The party might have lost seats in the elections but not its sakthi (power), declared Samy Vellu as he kept the members glued to their seats throughout the three-hour meeting.

"Are we dead because we lost the seats? We have only lost this once. Only we can speak on behalf of the Indian community.

"From those days, we have been asking to uplift the status of the Indian community and to look into Tamil schools. But they didn't, so is it our fault?"

At this juncture, Samy Vellu turned to secretary-general and Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam and said: "You ask at the cabinet meetings, how many hundreds of times I had brought up the Indian problems.

"If they say no, I will resign as party president tomorrow."

Samy Vellu said the only mistake the MIC did was not to sing its own praises.

"Today, the young people are scolding us, asking what MIC has done. You cannot sit in your bedroom and scold us all the time.

"If you want to know what we have done, get out of your room and see our work."

Samy Vellu also commented on the low number of Indians in the civil service and asked if it was because the Indians were not qualified enough for the positions.

At this point, he turned to Dr Subramaniam, who was talking to vice-president Datuk S. Veerasingham, and said: "Subramaniam listen. Veerasingham, don't talk to him. Always talking stories."

Selangor MIC passed four resolutions at the AGM: supporting the leadership of Samy Vellu; urging the government to enable the Indian community to own three per cent equity; employ more Indians in the civil service; and form an agency to look into the Selangor Indian community.