History with the Star (1) Samy Vellu.

The Star newspaper is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary and is running its old reports from that time. So far i have read several reports which really has given an indication or better still a yardstick of the progress that the country has achieved.

I read this 1983 report about the MIC President then Datuk S. Samy Vellu "Samy:I'll change the Indian Community" where he said these words..............

........"we cant let this community continue to be the laughing stock of others. Give me three more years and i will change the Indian community. At the end of my five year office as president, you will be able to stand tall and proud to call yourself a Malaysian Indian". Those words were reportedly said in July 1983.

But that is all history now.......(this is from Wikipedia) Dato' Seri Samy Vellu Sangalimuthu (Tamil: சாமிவேலு சங்கிலிமுத்து) (born 8 March 1936) is an Indian Malaysian politician. He is the longest serving President of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a component party of the Barisan Nasional coalition, holding the position since 1979, for 11 consecutive terms. He was the Works Minister of Malaysia and the longest serving minister in the Cabinet of Malaysia until he lost his ost his parliamentary seat to Dr. D. Michael Jeyakumar in the March 2008 general election.He has since announced his intended retirement in December 2010 even though his contract ends in January 2011 paving way to his present deputy Dato' G. Palanivel to succeed.

Just imagine, 11 consecutive terms. Has the Indian community progressed. Obviously it has but i doubt if it was on par as with the other communities.

Another project that didn't materialise is "Maika Holdings"thee project to enable Indian Malaysians to share the economic pie of the country.....MIC's investment arm and Samy's brainchild was established in 1982 purportedly to enable Indian Malaysians to have a share in the country�s economic growth. The company raised RM106 million in 1984 from 66,000 investors but some shareholders after seeing little returns on their investments have since accused the company of squandering the capital through dubious channels. Many Maika shareholders were estate workers who had pawned their family jewellery and withdrew their life savings to invest in the company. The investment company, however, has been a spectacular failure with many of its business ventures failing to take off.

Samy Vellu's Parlimentary seat is Sungai Siput. By all appearances he has looked after it well. Its main road is wide and clean and all its traffic lights have that digital countdown clock. Despite all that he had done yet he lost his seat in 2008. Now isn't that a statement.

I say, this Star History pages are interesting!!!

kk