S.A.VigneswaranChairman, Malaysian Indian Youth Development Foundation (MIYDF)

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

PETALING JAYA: The resignation of several MIC Youth leaders recently needs the attention of leaders from all levels in the country.

Barisan Nasional Youth chairman Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said he sympathised with the leaders and took a serious view into their hardship.

“I cannot get involved in the affairs of other component parties, but as the Barisan Youth chairman I am responsible for all fellow Youth members,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Hishammuddin said a post-mortem he carried out after the recent general election showed that Barisan did not obtain full support from the younger generation.

“Thus, the resignation of several Barisan Youth members is a very serious matter for the Barisan Youth leadership,” he said, adding that it was his duty as the Barisan Youth chairman to list all the grouses faced by them and help them take the next step forward.

“I give an assurance that these members will obtain a place in Barisan.” Source : The Star

Good afternoon to the members of the Media, my youths, my friends and well wishers.

In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Indian community, the MIC youth and the MIC. Throughout the long and difficult period of pre and post 2008 elections, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office as Youth Leader by defending the purpose of MIC and the visions of its President to every Indian who cast stone at MIC.

In the past few weeks, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in MIC to justify continuing that effort. With the disappearance of that base, I now believe that an unconstitutional decision to remove me as the youth leader has been sealed, and there is no longer a need for the process to be prolonged.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But the President of MIC thinks otherwise.
To continue to fight through the months ahead for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the MIC in a period when our entire focus should be on the great issues of community solidarity and development.

I would be called ungrateful as that is the norm of the President. Who is ungrateful? Are people who are in position for 4 years, one term, two terms ungrateful or the person and family who have been surviving for 30 years on MIC ticket? As leaders, we should make decisions for the interest of our organization even if such decision is detrimental to us. The organization we serve must come first, not the individual leader.

Even after the fateful defeat of MIC in the general elections and the adverse feedback from the grassroot community blaming not the MIC but only ‘an individual’ who has failed to address the crying needs of the community, yet the president announces that he shall seek re election for another term.

The misery MIC is reaping today is from what it has sown yesterday, and it will not only continue, but increase until it begins to sow today for a different harvest tomorrow.

I salute the decision of the President of MCA, Dato Seri Ong Ka Ting and his Deputy, Dato Seri Chan Kong Choy. Dato Seri Ong Ka Ting who won the Parliamentary seat refused to assume the office of ministership and further today, for the benefit of the party, declared he will not be seeking re election as President. But we cannot expect such noble declarations coming from the immortal MIC President.

Today I would like to tell my boys and the members of MIC that there is life after MIC. MIC will not close shop because of my departure.

Neither will MIC close shop after the demise of the President as no leader is indispensable.

When one realizes he has become a liability to the very organization he serves, then it is only right that he vacates his office for the survival and betterment of the organization.

My advice to the MIC President is ‘LEAVE AND PROVE THAT YOU CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT MIC OR BE PREPARED TO BURY MIC’.

I have always believed that our youth are the backbone of the community and the foundation on which to develop our noble civilization. But I will not use the traditional slogan of “youth are the future” as MIC leadership fails to take into account that the youth wing is a very active contributor to it today.

As a MIC member, I have fought for what I believed in. I have tried to the best of my ability to discharge those duties and meet those responsibilities that were entrusted to me.

But with a forced move to remove my office in MIC, I HEREBY AS A MAN WHO WALK MY TALK, HEREBY DECLARE THAT I SHALL EFFECTIVE 3PM TODAY, QUIT AS THE MEMBER OF MIC, A MEMBERSHIP I HAVE BEEN PROUDLY HOLDING FOR 25 YEARS.

I shall leave this office with regret at not completing my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as MIC Youth Leader for the past 6 years. These years have been a momentous time for the youth community and me.

They have been a time of achievement in which we can all be proud, achievements that represent the shared efforts of the MIC, the Youth, and the people.

I shall continue to maintain my friendship with my good friends in Barisan Nasional and I shall seek audience with Dato Seri Hishammudin Tun Hussein Onn to see how I could contribute further for the development of Indian youth.

I pledge to all my brothers here today that as long as I have a breath of life in my body, I shall continue to work for the great causes to which I have been dedicated throughout my years. I shall mobilize the Malaysian Indian Youth Development Foundation (MIYDF) to uplift the Indian community.

With MIYDF, I will once again, outside of politics, serve the common good and move toward the ideals and solutions which I believe can build a future of hope and opportunity for us and for our community.

We will not elaborate on what MIYDF intends to achieve at this juncture as its actions shall speak louder than words.

In MIYDF, there will be no dictatorship.
The youth shall make decisions and we shall implement their plans for the betterment of community.
To those who have stood with me during these past difficult weeks, to my youth, my friends, to many others who joined in supporting my cause because they believed it was right, I will be eternally grateful for your support.

And to those who have not felt able to give me your support, let me say I leave with no bitterness toward you, because all of us, in MIC in the final analysis, have been more loyal and fearful of the President of MIC than with the good of the community.

I have nothing against MIC. My youth here and I realize we have been serving the ‘One Man’ not the organization called MIC. My love for the Indian community does not end with MIC.

Thank you.

SA. Vigneswaran Chairman, Malaysian Indian Youth Development Foundation (MIYDF)
Contact : SA. Vigneswaran (019-3832281)
www.savigneswaran.com
www.miydf.org
Khanna (012-2389789)

KUALA LUMPUR: Youth leaders who had to vacate their posts after reaching 41 years of age would be given new roles to strengthen the party, MIC secretary-general Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said here.

He said a proposal would be tabled in the party’s central working committee meeting to allow these leaders to become branch chairmen.

“This will enable them to play a more prominent role in the mainstream of the party,” he said in a statement.

Dr Subramaniam, who chaired a meeting with the national MIC Youth and state MIC Youth leaders late Wednesday, said the affected leaders had been asked to provide advice and support to the youth wing until the new appointments were finalised.

“The National Youth convention which is scheduled for early July will continue as scheduled and will be organised by an organising committee appointed by MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu,” he said.

The meeting was called after MIC Youth chief S. A. Vigneswaran was issued a letter directing him to step down from the post as he had already reached 41.

Several others including the deputy Youth chief S. Ramish, secretary M. Kumaresan and several state Youth chiefs were also affected by the ruling.

Source : The Star