BN secretariat to handle MIC polls

It will consist of BN executive secretary and the members from non-Indian BN component parties such as MCA and Gerakan.

PUTRAJAYA: A high-level meeting today proposed the setting up of a special secretariat by the Barisan Nasional (BN) to help the crisis-plagued MIC to clean up its divisions and branches and hold fresh party elections, said BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

It was proposed that the secretariat be chaired by BN executive secretary Abu Khamis and its members be drawn from non-Indian BN component parties such as MCA and Gerakan, he said.

Tengku Adnan said the proposal was made at a meeting attended by BN chairman Najib Abdul Razak; BN deputy chairman Muhyiddin Yassin; MIC deputy president Dr S. Subramaniam and himself.

He said MIC president G. Palanivel did not attend the meeting, held at the Prime Minister’s Office, but sent a text message to Najib saying that his wife had chest pains.

Palanivel sent MIC vice-president S. Sothinathan to represent him, but the latter was not allowed into the meeting.

“The proposal was accepted by Dr Subramaniam. Palanivel has yet to state his agreement. We hope that the matter can be agreed to by today,” Tengku Adnan told a special news conference here.

He said the BN top leadership wanted to meet with only Palanivel and Dr Subramaniam, and not Sothinathan, to help resolve the MIC crisis.

“After the meeting, I informed Sothinathan, who was waiting outside the meeting room, of the proposal to set up the secretariat. He said the proposal would make the president powerless.”

Tengku Adnan said it was also proposed that the MIC 2009 central working committee (CWC) be taken into account until the fresh elections, and that all the nine president-appointed posts in the 2009 CWC not be considered.

“It was also proposed that during the period of the fresh elections, the president cannot appoint anyone to the nine posts,” he said.

– BERNAMA