Dragging RoS to court will not resolve MIC crisis, say political observers

In fact, they describe the court case as just another turn of the screw, which will only serve to prolong the bad vibes between the party president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel and his estranged deputy, Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, as well as their respective supporters.

Assoc Prof Dr Sarjit Singh Gill, who is a senior lecturer with Universiti Putra Malaysia's Department of Social Sciences and Development, said now that the matter has been dragged to the court, the MIC's efforts to rejuvenate the party and start focusing on national and community issues would have to be postponed indefinitely.

"It's going to cause the party to wobble even more," he said.

Although Sarjit was confident the party may get to hold fresh elections before July this year, he doubted it would be a smooth process in view of the differences of opinion between the top two party leaders.

On Feb 24, Palanivel, his two Vice-Presidents Datuk S. Sothinathan and Datuk S. Balakrishnan, and former MIC secretary-general A. Prakash Rao filed an application for a judicial review to quash the RoS' directive calling for fresh elections for several key party posts.

A day earlier, MIC Central Working Committee (CWC) member A. K. Ramalingam had applied for a judicial review to get the RoS and its director-general, Mohammad Razin Abdullah, to retract the re-election directive sent to the party.

"They can bring the issue to the court. That's their right but I'm sure RoS has also studied the legal implications and will not simply put their reputation at stake.

"Once a matter goes to the court, then everybody has to wait for the court decision," Sarjit Singh told Bernama recently.

Former MIC secretary-general and deputy Dewan Rakyat speaker D.P. Vijandran, who is a lawyer, opined that the party could proceed with the re-elections, even with the court case pending, provided that "it has taken the proper steps in consultation with a legal adviser".

"The party leaders (who want the re-elections to be held) should do it within the confines of the MIC constitution. Then again, there is the question of whether the RoS is empowered to do what it did (send the directive to MIC to hold fresh elections).

"Even if the court were to decide that the RoS does not have the power (to send the re-election directive), there is still the question of the validity of the MIC's last party elections in 2013 and the court case will not resolve this," he said, adding that the applications for judicial review only sought to establish whether or not the RoS was empowered to issue the re-election directive to MIC.

The MIC crisis erupted following differences in opinion between Palanivel and his deputy after the RoS issued a notice last Dec 5 directing the party to hold fresh elections for the three vice-presidential and 23 CWC posts.

The RoS had nullified the elections held in November 2013 following complaints of irregularities.

On Feb 18, Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, deputy chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor met with Palanivel and Subramaniam to resolve the party crisis.

According to Tengku Adnan, it was agreed during the meeting that the MIC would hold fresh elections and that it would use its 2009 CWC list for the purpose of holding the re-elections as decided by the RoS.

Assoc Prof Dr Sivamurugan Pandian, a senior lecturer with Universiti Sains Malaysia's School of Social Sciences, agreed that the court case would serve to prolong the MIC crisis, unless the court dismissed both the applications for judicial review.

He said the longer the crisis prolonged, the more tedious it would become for the party leaders to focus on the needs and demands of the community.

"It seems to have turned into a never-ending story and has tarnished party's image. Even decisions made by the prime minister and his deputy were not respected. It also brings into question the party's integrity and political legitimacy," he added.

Sarjit agreed that the MIC would be saddled with more problems if its crisis was left to fester.

"MIC may find it difficult to attract young Indians to collaborate with the party or join as members as they now have a different perspective of the goings-on in the party," he said.

Urging the party leaders to set aside their differences and hold fresh elections, he said they should move on and draft a blueprint on the development of the Indian community.

"So far I've not seen any plan...as an academician, I would like to see the facts and figures.