I leave it to leadership to decide on speaker's post - Devamany

Newly-elected MIC Deputy President Datuk Seri S. K. Devamany will leave it to the party leadership and the prime minister to decide whether he should remain as Perak state legislative assembly speaker or assume a new role at federal level.

"I did announce that I will quit the Perak speaker's post if I win because at that time when we were campaigning, I felt that if I won the MIC deputy president's post, the commitment towards the third largest party in the country is huge, and bringing back the confidence and relevance of the party among the Indians, as well as Malaysians, needed that kind of commitment.

"Given that objective, which is very sincere, that decision was made and now I leave it to the leaders to decide the future that I am going to take.

"If there is a federal role that I have to play, I will abide by and respect the decision that they are going to make," he told a press conference at the Perak Darul Ridzuan building here today.

Breaking his silence on the issue for the first time, Devamany said it was not his call to make (on the decision) as he was part of the leadership in the MIC and Barisan Nasional (BN).

"If I want to make the decision on my own, then I should set up my own party...so, we wait and see, but of course the duty here I have to settle and I will still be around until Nov 23," he said.

In the recent MIC party election, Devamany defeated Tapah Member of Parliament Datuk M. Saravanan for the party number two post.

Devamany garnered 698 votes, defeating Saravanan, who is also youth and sports deputy minister, by 17 votes.

Meanwhile, he said he was thankful that the crisis in the MIC was over but that the party had to bring back its "brothers who are on the outside and build up the party again."