MIC vice-president M Saravanan has come to the defence of the party’s branch chairmen, above 50-years-old, who have been asked to quit the party to pave the way for younger blood. 

“Before we ask them to quit, we must take into account their contribution to the party. Some branch chairmen even at the age of 60 are active. Putting an age and saying that they must quit at a certain age is not right for a political party.

“This is not employment where we have a retirement age. Those calling for branch chairman above 50 or 60 to quit must first realize that without these older leaders the party would have perished a long time ago. You could be young now, but you will definitely get older one day,” he told FMT when contacted.

Saravanan, who is also the Youth and Sports deputy minister, was asked to react to a proposal by a MIC Youth leader to have a “volunteer retirement plan” for branch chairmen who have exceeded the age of 65.

The party youth wing information chief S Subramaniam said the proposal was made in good faith for the betterment of the party and would pave the way for younger leaders to take up positions in MIC.

To add to this, a branch chairman today announced that he planned to submit a memorandum to the MIC Central Working Committee (CWC), which would convene on Tuesday, asking the party’s highest decision making body to pass a resolution requiring all branch leaders above 50 to quit.

VT Rajen, the Taman Mujur branch chairman in Kota Raja, Klang said he will submit a memorandum to the CWC as branch chairmen have lost touch with the community.

“Aged branch chairmen are one of the main reasons why MIC cannot get along with the community,” Rajen told FMT.

He added that it is time for the party top leadership to “clean up” these branch chairmen, to keep the party alive for the 14th general-election.

However, he added the so called “plan” would only apply to branches.

“I will send a memorandum to all CWC members on Monday. They can bring the resolution to the CWC meeting on Tuesday,” he said.

Odd proposal

Saravanan said this proposal is odd as it comes during an election year, where all the 3,700 branch chairmen would vote to pick the MIC president if there is a contest.

“Asking branch chairman above 50 to resign is absurd. If this is done across the board then it should apply to national leaders as well. If all those above 50 in the national leadership resign, imagine what would happen.

“Even the president and deputy president would have to go. Having young leaders take up branch positions is not wrong, in fact it augurs well for the party. But asking senior people to resign is uncalled for.

“Instead we should be setting up new branches for young leaders or make it mandatory for every branch to have certain number of young office bearers. This would allow budding young politicians to grow. You don’t have to step on someones head to get a position,” he added.

He said the party can only embark on these ideas upon the completion of its party elections.

“This is our election year. We cannot set up new branches in an election year. If we change branch leaders above 50 now, then 65% of branches would have new leaders. But what about the old ones? They would sulk and start having factions.

“This idea even has the potential of dividing the party. VT Rajen can pass the memorandum to us but I assure you I will be steadfast in protecting the elder leaders in the party. If it is tabled at the CWC, I would definitely not support this idea,” said Saravanan.

– Free Malaysia Today  (B. Nantha Kumar)