Malaysian Indian politician in spat with former protege

Kuala Lumpur, Nov 4 : A former chief of the business arm of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) Wednesday slapped defamation suits against party chief S. Samy Vellu and a newspaper, giving a new twist to a long-pending public spat involving charges of corruption and misuse of funds.

P. Chithirakala Vasu, a former chief executive officer of the Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED) filed three defamation suits against Vellu, his wife S. Indrani and the publisher of Thamil Nesan, a Tamil daily, K. Padmanabhan.

MIED is the educational arm of the Malaysian Indian Congress and was incorporated Feb 29, 1984.

Its tasks include channelising government funds for education among the estimated 1.7 million ethnic Indians, most of whom settled here during the British era.

Chithirakala, 38, filed the suits at the High Court civil registry Wednesday through her lawyer V. Prem Shangar, Star Online said.

Her action followed reports that Vellu and others at the MIC and the MIED were giving statements before the police in connection with the alleged discrepancies of over $1.4 million in the MIED accounts.

In a commentary, The Star said Velu, 73, "might have found his match in a young woman whom he once admired and promoted to high office but who is now trying to turn the tables on him".

This is the first time in his long career that Samy Vellu "has faced the wrath of a woman and a confidante from his inner circle".

Their very open fight is front-page material in the Tamil dailies and is the talk of the party rank and file and the Indian community.

"They had a balmy relationship for 15 years but it soured after the massive defeat suffered by the MIC in last year's March 8 general election" with Vellu losing as a lawmaker, the newspaper noted.

Unnamed "party insiders" said their bad blood had also got to do with the emergence of Samy Vellu's son Vel Paari, as a mover and shaker in the post-March 8 MIC.

"After he lost as MP and was no longer minister, he became very insecure," said Chithirakala, giving reasons why their relationship soured.

"He saw enemies everywhere and I was one. He came after me."

For nearly 15 years, Chithirakala, married with four children, was by Samy Vellu's side helping him realise one of his biggest dreams - a full-fledged science and medical university owned by the MIC for Malaysians, especially the Indian community.

That dream was realised last August when then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi declared the university open but the success also came on the heels of the election defeat, which soured Samy Vellu's relationship not just with Chithirakala but also other top MIC leaders.

His spat with Chithirakala could not have come at a worse time.

He has another on-going spat with Penang Deputy Chief Minister P. Ramasamy.

Even his post as party president is falling vacant next month and a challenger - former MIC vice-president M. Muthupalaniappan - is hoping to ride on long-standing grievances to topple him, the newspaper noted.

--IANS