Asking Najib to step down will take country backward - Samy Vellu

Demands by certain people for Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to step down as the prime minister will only take the country backward, said former MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu.

Samy Vellu, who is Malaysia's special envoy on infrastructure to India and South Asia, said these people should ask the prime minister to file the case on allegations over government investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

"The prime minister must fight and win, that's the case. I am convinced he will win," he said when met at the Aidilfitri open house of Najib and Cabinet ministers at Seri Perdana here.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had reportedly asked Najib to step down over allegations pertaining to 1MDB funds.

Commenting on the MIC, Samy Vellu said Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, who claims to be the party's acting president, is the right man to rebuild and strengthen the party.

"Under his leadership, there will be new strength and energy to build back the party," he said, adding that Subramaniam is a good leader and almost three-fourths of the party supports him.

"All this while, the former leadership ... I don't want to talk about him," he said in reference to Datuk Seri G. Palanivel.

Samy Vellu, who is openly supporting Dr Subramaniam, said he was disappointed that Palanivel and his team had allegedly not raised anything about the community and did not know what was happening around them.

Palanivel, Datuk S. Sothinathan and Datuk S. Balakrishnan, as well as A. Prakash Rao would be challenging the Registrar of Societies in the Federal Court to quash the RoS directive for the party to hold re-elections.

Last Monday, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal chaired by Justice Datuk Aziah Ali ruled that the RoS had not acted beyond and exceeding its powers when it issued a directive for MIC to hold re-elections.

Dr Subramaniam has declared himself MIC acting president, claiming Palanivel was no longer an MIC member because he took the party dispute to court and contravened the party constitution and by default ceased to be a member of the party.