Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: A video of MIC president Datuk Seri G Palanivel making candid remarks about party members and Indians uploaded on a Facebook page has put the beleaguered leader in a spot.

Uploaded on the Kitchen Up TV Facebook page, the three-minute plus clip shows Palanivel speaking candidly on several issues where he says MIC members will vote for the opposition in the event of a Permatang Pauh by-election, The Malaysian Insider reported. He also speaks about his lower majority at the last election in May 2013, and the opposition’s role in getting large numbers.

Palanivel also talked about the consequences of what would happen if he was removed as Cameron Highlands MP following the Pahang Sultan’s criticism of his performance.

The Malaysian Insider had tried to contact Palanivel’s office for comment but there has been no response.

The Facebook page operator said he had uploaded the clip so that people would know “what type of leaders we have now.” He said the clip was shot at a private meeting between Palanivel and the crew. “I cannot provide you more details as this will put my safety at risk. I have more videos of Datuk Seri Palanivel’s confession which I will upload very soon,” he said in a message to The Malaysian Insider while giving an assurance that the clip was not a fake or superimposed.

He said Palanivel should have been aware that he was being filmed,  as it was a formal interview and not a casual talk.

The Kitchen Up TV Facebook page does not carry much information about itself, and appears to have started its Facebook presence earlier this year.

Palanivel also blamed the Indians in Cameron Highlands for the Barisan Nasional’s (BN) reduced majority when winning the seat for the coalition. “I won every Malay vote box, you see. The fellow [opposition candidate] would get 70 votes, I’ll get 400 votes. I only lost the bloody Indian vote box,” he said.

He even cast doubts on his party colleagues’ commitment toward the BN and suggested that party members would vote for the opposition if given the chance. The MIC president also gave the impression that he had close links with PKR which he credited for  the success of the huge turnout at his recent birthday bash at the MIC headquarters in the capital.

MIC Youth chief C Sivarraajh said he received calls from youth members who had watched the video.He said that they were dismayed over Palanivel’s choice of words in describing voters and party members.

“As a president he should not say bloody Indian. In whatever scenario, he should not say that. He must clarify whether he is the man in the video,” he said. Sivarraajh added Palanivel should immediately lodge a police report if he was not the person in the video. — The Malaysian Insider


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 11, 2015.

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