The MIC is to introduce a rating system to evaluate the success of its 3,600 branches in fulfilling the people’s needs and aspirations.

Party President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said today the system would have four grades — P1 (for extraordinary performance), P2 (standard performance), P3 (below average performance) and P4 (inactivity).

The criteria and parameters for the system would be determined later, he told reporters after opening the Penang MIC Convention here.

"The first phase of the rating system will be enforced immediately while the second phase will be conducted at the end of the year,” he said.

Samy Vellu said that with the system in place, the performance of a branch would be evaluated once in six months.

He said the introduction of the rating system was in accordance with the rebranding of the party to make it stronger and more dynamic.

"The MIC has decided that the rebranding will begin at branch level, whereby 36 courses will be conducted for the 3,600 branches,” he said.

Samy Vellu also said that the MIC would also introduce a People’s Satisfaction Index (PSI) whereby a study would be conducted regularly to get to know the feedback of the people on the new approaches adopted by the party as well as to monitor the performance of the branches and their leaders

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.

KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC has hired two information technology (IT) specialists to rebut allegations against the party on the Internet.

“We would make sure that the allegations are replied to within 24 hours,” president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said here at the 62nd Selangor MIC delegates conference here on Saturday.

The IT experts would also attend to the complaints through the party's call centre. The centre, currently under renovation at its headquarters, is expected to be operational next month.

“They would also refer the problems to the respective MIC leaders who would raise them with the relevant government agencies if required,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Malacca on Friday, Samy said a privilege card would be issued to the MIC's 630,000 members as part of the party’s re-branding exercise.

The card, called Dhana (meaning wealth in Sanskrit), would allow members to enjoy at least 20 benefits and privileges including special healthcare programmes, mobile phone offers and discounts to buy motorcycles and cars.

Speaking at the opening of the Malacca MIC delegates conference here on Friday, Samy Vellu said it would be the first political party to offer such a card.

NIBONG TEBAL: Police have detained two local leaders of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) here yesterday for allegedly sending SMS messages threatening to kill another member of the organisation.

Sources said the two, in their mid 20s, were picked up from their homes in Taman Cenderawasih here about 2am after their victim, in his early 40s, lodged a police report.
It is learnt he received a total of 16 short messages threatening to kill him if he failed to slow down his activities.

The messages were sent using two cell phones.

The sources said there was a misunderstanding between the three over a fundraising dinner about two weeks ago.

Hindraf national co-ordinator R.S. Thanenthiran said he was not aware of the problem and would seek an explanation from those involved.

SHAH ALAM: Police believe they have solved the murder of Kota Raja MIC division Youth chief Selvadhurai Sagadevan with the arrest of a woman, her boyfriend and a teacher.

The woman was picked up at her home in Taman Sri Muda here about 10am on Wednesday and was remanded for five days at the Shah Alam court.

The woman, in her early 30s, is a close relative of Selvadhurai. She confessed that her 34-year-old boyfriend was involved in the murder.

The man was arrested at his home in Klang followed by the teacher here the same day.

The woman had been using the teacher's handphone. Police are trying to establish the connection between the woman and the teacher, a man in his 30s.

Shah Alam police chief Assistant Commissioner Noor Azam Jamaludin said he did not rule out the possibility that the murder was committed for insurance money.

It is learnt that Selvadhurai had been insured for about RM1 million.

Selvadhurai was reportedly strangled during a robbery in his wife's office in Section 25, Taman Sri Muda here, on April 28. His wife, who was present, said he was assaulted with a metal rod.

By Tun. Mahathir

It is strange that whenever people like Param Cumaraswamy accuse others of being racist they end up by exposing the racist in them. For them you are racist only if you talk about Malays and their need to catch up with other races. If you talk of the imagined plight of other races in Malaysia, and make ridiculous statements that the Tamil Indians in Malaysia are facing “ethnic cleansing” when you know that no such thing is happening, it is not racist.

It is only in Malaysia that people of immigrant origins, so identified by their insistence on being linked race-wise with their countries of origin, are actually accepted as citizens.

In other countries including the much-admired democracies of the West, citizens are not linked to or classified by their countries of origin. They speak the national language habitually, go to schools where the national language is the medium of instruction and adopt the culture of the indigenous people, or at least the people who originally founded these countries (the indigenous people having been systematically wiped out).

But in Malaysia although the national language is the language of the indigenous people, many Malaysian citizens cannot speak the language, much less use it habitually in their homes and with fellow citizens. Whenever some foreigner speak Bahasa Malaysia to them, they would reply in English. Foreigners cannot understand why they seem to downgrade their national language. And yet these citizens question why there is, for practical purpose, no Bangsa Malaysia.

Schools using languages of the countries of origin are not only permitted but are actually financed by the Government. Try and find such schools in South East Asia or in the so-called liberal developed countries where they claim there is no racial discrimination. There are actually more Indians in the United Kingdom than in Malaysia. But there is not a single school where the teaching medium is in any of the Indian languages.

People like Param would not notice all these. Instead he sees the effort to bring up the indigenous people to the level of the non-indigenous people as racist. Arrogantly he seems to want the indigenous people become the deprived in their own country.

I admit that I spoke on “Ketuanan Melayu” in Johor. The Malay intellectuals have been talking about this for a long time. There was no suggestion about them being racist or that they should be detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

I spoke on this issue critically as I consider that claiming to be masters when you are not is ridiculous. How can the Malay driver driving a car belonging to someone else regard himself as the “Tuan” and the owner of the car as inferior to him? Actually it is the owner and his employer who is the “Tuan”.

In my speech my advise to the Malays is to acquire knowledge and skills and use them to enrich themselves for only then can they be regarded by their servants and employees as “Tuan”.

Is this seditious or near seditious? Is speaking about Malays and their needs seditious?

On the other hand let us consider the Hindraf memorandum to the British. Most people including Indians have not read it. To gain the support of the Tamil Indians, Hindraf demands that the British compensate every Tamil Indian in Malaysia one million pounds sterling (about RM 7 million). That should tempt even middle-class Indians. Surely Indian workers would fall for it.

The Hindraf memorandum also contains the following extracts which are obviously racist;
1) “Commonwealth ethnic Indian peace loving subjects in Malaysia persecuted by Government backed Islamic extremist violent armed terrorist who launched a pre-dawn violent armed attack and destroyed the Kg Jawa Mariamman Hindu temple at 4.00am this morning (15.11.07)”.

2) “Appeal for United Kingdom to move emergency United Nations Resolution condemning “Ethnic Cleansing” in Malaysia”.

I will not quote other highly inflammatory remarks found in the Hindraf memorandum. However I would like to mention the threat made by Hindraf in its conclusion;

“We fear that the peace loving Indian community of Tamil origin having been pushed to the corner and the persecution getting worse by the day may be forced into terrorism in a matter of time as what has happened to the Sri Lankan Tamils”.

Is Hindraf planning to make Malaysia a Southeast Asian Sri Lanka?

I don’t believe the majority of the Tamils in Malaysia would agree with the picture painted by Hindraf. Unfortunately, like the Malays, few of them read the actual memorandum. And so they support Hindraf blindly.

But if you read what I have quoted would you not conclude that Hindraf and Param Cumaraswamy, who objected to their detention under the ISA as racist especially as his desire to have me detained under the Act for telling the Malays to realise that they are not “Tuan” when they have to clean the shoes of others. If they want to be “Tuan”, then they must acquire the skills and knowledge to succeed in life. And when they succeed they would be highly regarded whether they are called “Tuan” or not.
It seems that according to Param Cumaraswamy talking about Malays is seditious.

I am not going to call for his detention.

He should as a lawyer who understands the law, decide whether he is a racist and should be detained or not.

KUALA LUMPUR: Eyebrows were raised at the MIC Selangor Youth annual general meeting on Friday when key leaders Datuk G. Palanivel and S.A. Vikneswaran failed to turn up.

Palanivel is the state MIC chief while Vikneswaran is the national Youth chief.

Vikneswaran missed the meeting because of a death in his family but members were unhappy with Palanivel's absence as the meeting, originally scheduled for today, was brought forward to Friday to accommodate him.

Office-bearers were informed at the last minute that Palanivel had decided to attend the Malacca MIC meeting instead.

"If you can't be bothered to attend your own state AGM, what is the point of him being the state chief?" asked a Selangor member.

"Why is the Malacca AGM more important than your own AGM?"

However, it is understood that Palanivel was also a no-show in Malacca.

Party sources say that Palanivel had been avoiding public meetings to avoid questions on the failure of Selangor MIC and his failure to defend the Hulu Selangor seat.

Party member A.P. Vadivelu said: "He wanted the youth to campaign for him at the 2006 party elections but now he has abandoned them."

Selangor Youth chief P. Subramaniam, in his speech at the AGM, said former Selangor menteri besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo was the reason for MIC's failure in the state.

Subramaniam said the Padang Jawa temple demolition under Dr Mohd Khir's instruction was the main reason for the party's defeat.

He added that Dr Mohd Khir's decision to award brooms to under-performing civil servants also led to many of them voting for the opposition