Vigneswaran: Signing a copy of his book for a buyer

A PASSION to share his views with the Indian community in Malaysia, and work together with one and all to “chart the path to redeem our dignity” has made former MIC Youth leader S. Vigneswaran pen a book.

And this 218-page volume titled Redemption of Indian Dignity was written in just one month, backed of course with research from able assistants and officials of the Malaysian Indian Youth Development Foundation (MIYDF) that he chairs.

Vigneswaran, the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Youth and Sports from 2004 till the March 8 general election tsunami last year, held a media launch of his book in Subang Jaya yesterday. One who underwent quite a struggle to get to read law in England, Vigneswaran in 2003 became the first MIC Youth chief to be elected to the post, after nearly 50 years of the party’s existence.

Youth leaders prior to this were appointed by the MIC president. While he has been acknowledged for his many contributions to the youth movement, within the party as well as among Indian NGOs, Vigneswaran was early last year unceremoniously stripped of his post for calling on his president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu to retire. He then quit the party.

As Vigneswaran pointed out when making the call to Samy Vellu, the MIC since its establishment in August 1946 till 1979 — a period of 33 years — had seen six presidents, but for almost 30 years till last year (and until today), the party has been lorded over by Samy Vellu.

“In this book,” he told a press conference after the launch, “I am saying what I have in my heart. It’s about what we have to do together as Indians in this country …

“We should not sit and wait for handouts. We should work for what we want! We seem to have forgotten our dignity, all arising from the self-pity of marginalisation. So, how and why did we get marginalised in the first place?”

A read of Vigneswaran’s Redemption of Indian Dignity will be both informative and thought-provoking, for he touches on several areas of concern to the community.

He even reveals details on what many MIC members themselves know little of — the Blue Book for Indian progress, drawn up in 1970 under the leadership of MIC’s sixth president Tan Sri V. Manickavasagam.

This was a blueprint for Indians to achieve a 10 per cent equity holding in the national economy by 1990. Indians then held one per cent equity in the economy, he added, but today, it remains at a dismal 1.2 per cent, much of it in the hands of billionaires and millionaires, including Forbes-listed Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan.

MIYDF is working to get the soft-cover book, priced at RM33, into some of the leading bookshops in the country. For now, those interested can purchase it through the website at www.miydf.org. The email address is info@ miydf.org.

Source : www.mmail.com.my

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