Samy Vellu plans to revamp MIC

Wednesday January 2, 2008


KUALA LUMPUR: The MIC will be reorganised to make it more effective and efficient in meeting the needs and demands of the Indian community, its president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said.

He said the 62-year-old party would undertake a “cleaning exercise” to make it more relevant to the Indians.

“The party will change its course to move more effectively to resolve the problems facing the community,” he said.

Samy Vellu said although the methods adopted by the MIC have been successful in resolving the community’s woes, a more concerted effort was needed for the “more difficult and sensitive problems.”

In a statement from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, he said the party would be managed in a different style with a higher efficiency towards serving the people.

Samy Vellu, who is the Works Minister, is in Tamil Nadu en route to New Delhi to attend a three-day conference for People of Indian Origin (PIO), hosted by the India, beginning Jan 7.

He said recently that new faces would be introduced to contest the next general election.

“The people’s expectations have changed and we also need to make changes to remain relevant,” he said.

“We will work in a manner that will benefit the community,” he said, adding that MIC understood the mode of being efficient by “doing the right things”, while at the same time, striving to “do things right”.

Samy Vellu said education would continue to be the main thrust of the party this year, with the official opening of the RM580mil Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST), a university owned by the MIC.

“The creation of more Indian graduates will be our main objective in 2008,” he said, adding that the party’s educational arm, the Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED), has been supporting 1,200 medical students overseas annually.