1997

Comfortable at the top


Byline: K. BARADAN

DATUK Seri S. Samy Vellu, 61, savoured every minute of the momentous
victory of being party president for the eighth term yesterday.

For the first time ever, with absolute ease and enjoying a wide
consensus, Samy Vellu was returned unopposed and this will allow him
to lead the party to the year 2000. Some say even beyond.

Like Samy Vellu, another party veteran, Tun V.T. Sambanthan, also
held power for exactly 18 years. However, there are few parallels in
their leadership.

Sambanthan came from outside, rode a huge Tamil reformist wave to
oust the English-educated socialist K.L. Devaser in 1955.

Unlike Samy Vellu, Sambanthan enjoyed legitimacy from the start. His
association with Tunku Abdul Rahman and Malaya's independence ensured
him a pre-eminent place in the party's consciousness.

Samy Vellu, on the other hand, had to claw his way up from an
ordinary branch member to party president.

He had to fight to keep the first toe-hold of power he gained as
acting president with the sudden death of Tan Sri V. Manicavasagam in
1979.

While Sambanthan's last years were painful, and his final ouster
bordered on a public scandal, the capping of Samy Vellu's 18 years in
power was built on strength from defeating his rivals and building a
new consensus.

``I am happy to say that for the first time ever, the MIC has been
rid of factions which had plagued the party,'' Samy Vellu said when
met at the new Works Ministry office.

His office on the fifth floor is cold. The cold, say Samy Vellu's
aides, keeps away the boss' asthma. Samy Vellu's staff are also on
their toes for he shouts his orders from inside his office.

Although poverty marred his early education, his large office is now
well-stocked with hundreds of neatly-lined books, both in English and
Tamil, ranging from political biographies to the works of futurists
such as Alvin Tofler and management gurus like Peter Drucker.

From this posh office, Samy Vellu now holds court.

He combines his vast knowledge of Tamil culture and history, its
fables and legends, with western ideas, concepts and technology.

The circumstances and its trappings are a far cry from the poverty
and misery of his childhood.

The eldest of three children, Samy Vellu was born in 1936 to tappers
Sangilimuthu and Anggamah at the Rengo Malay Estate near Kluang,
Johor.

His father, who had arrived from India in 1919, moved between estates
in search of better wages and was working as a labourer at the coal
mines in Batu Arang when the war ended.

Sangilimuthu later sold coconuts, fish and mutton at the Batu Arang
market while his son went to various Tamil schools. Samy Vellu
dropped out early to begin a career as an odd-job worker but took
night classes.

He worked as waiter, shop assistant and cook. In 1949, Samy Vellu,
who was then 13 years old, found work as an office boy with Malayan
Colleries.

A year later, he was a telephone operator and then despatch boy.
After his mother's death in 1950, he left for the city with his
father.

There, Samy Vellu began work as a bus conductor with G.T.C. transport
company (now Syarikat Sri Jaya).

It was there that he met Y. Thomas, another bus conductor. The two
became good friends but years later Thomas would challenge him for
the party presidency.

``These were years when I only ate one meal a day,'' Samy Vellu said.
``I felt things could not get any worse.''

True enough, his fortunes took a turn for the better when he met Teo
Philips, a construction engineer who got him work as an office boy
with the then well-known architectural firm of Vethavanam and Co.

For RM9 a month, he also had to clean Vethavanam's house, wash his
car and water the garden.

But Vethavanam treated Samy Vellu like a son and encouraged him to
take up architecture.

Samy Vellu began to seriously study English and attend night classes
in draughtsmanship. Even so, he spent ample time on cultural events.

He and some friends formed a theatre group that staged dramas in
estates and small towns the group's leading actors were Samy Vellu
and one V. Govindaraj.

One of their earliest and most successful dramas was entitled Nattpu
(Friendship).

Ironically, both entered politics and stayed loyal to each other
until they fell out dramatically and played out a real-life drama in
1984 that ended with Samy Vellu expelling Govindaraj from the MIC.

From 1955 onwards, Samy Vellu's life was one hectic round of drama,
night studies and work until a new passion took control of him
politics.

In 1959, a year before he got married, he and Govindaraj joined the
Batu Caves MIC branch as ordinary members.

Samy Vellu was 23 then and winning the MIC presidency was his
ultimate objective. It took him 20 years to reach the top.

Five years after joining the party, he was elected Selangor MIC
committee member and head of the party's cultural bureau.

His boldness brought him to the front ranks. He was neat and well
dressed at a time when many were sloppy. He was disciplined and
suffused determination.

Crises were opportunities for him. During the Indonesian
Confrontation, he made headlines by climbing up the Indonesian
Embassy's flag pole, pulling down the flag and burning it.

``I was charged in court and fined RM25,'' Samy Vellu said. Malaysian
newspapers called him Hero Malaysia on the front pages.

He read Tamil news over RTM from 1963 until he became a Member of
Parliament in 1974. His voice was a legend and his face recognised
everywhere he went.

Samy Vellu had no equal in the MIC for sheer determination he
contested the prestigious Selangor secretary's post six times, losing
at every attempt until he won against V.J. Balasundram by 13 votes in
1967. Samy Vellu was only 31 then.

In the early 1970s, Samy Vellu left for London and returned a
qualified architect. He recalls the state of the MIC on his return
with horror.

It was time for a coup against Sambanthan and Samy Vellu played a key
role in persuading deputy president Tan Sri V. Manicavasagam to
challenge Sambanthan for the top post.

``I was one of five leaders who took the risk to openly defy
Sambanthan,'' Samy Vellu said.

Pressure was applied on Sambanthan to quit but he resisted until in
March 1973 when Tun Abdul Razak stepped in and negotiated a deal with
Sambanthan who agreed to quit on June 30, 1973.

But the rise of Manicavasagam did not bring rewards for Samy Vellu.
Instead new faces came to the forefront.

This was the time when Datuk S. Subramaniam, Datuk K. Pathmanaban and
several others entered the political arena to infuse new blood into
the MIC and Manicavasagam gave them preference.

They were young, well-educated and ambitious but lacked grassroots
experience.

Samy Vellu was already a party vice-president in 1974 and became
deputy president in 1976 after defeating Subramaniam but remained
without a government post until after the 1978 general election when
he was made Deputy Minister of the Housing and Local Government
Ministry.

Talking of those years still makes Samy Vellu sore.

``Sometimes I am still bitter with Manicavasagam, but I had nothing
against Subramaniam.

``I never once wanted to throw him from the party. The problem was he
was always listening to other people ... others were using him,'' he
said, recollecting his stormy relationship with his deputy since 1974.

Manicavasagam had done his best to promote Subramaniam but failed.
The rank and file saved Samy Vellu and when Manicavasagam died in
1979, Samy Vellu gained his first toe-hold as acting president.

But it was a divided party that Samy Vellu took over. Animosity
between the Samy Vellu and Subramaniam factions wrecked the MIC for
most of the 1980s.

A 20-minute private talk between Samy Vellu and Subramaniam in 1981
brought peace for about five years. It was during this time that the
Maju Institute of Educational Development, Maika Holdings and plans
for Tafe College started.

But the in-fighting resurfaced in 1986, and in 1989 the two leaders
were locked in battle to settle the score.

Samy Vellu won and proceeded to clean up the MIC of all opposition,
including expelling M.G. Pandithan and his men.

More than half the party's branches were outlawed in stages. In 1990,
Samy vellu dropped Subramaniam from the party's parliamentary list
but the deputy president bounced back to get back his deputy
ministership.

In the years since then, Samy Vellu has come to terms with his own
limitations.

Although commanding enough clout to remove any person he desires, the
party's consensus prevents him from unleashing extreme injustice.

Unexpectedly, the crisis that almost brought him to the knees did not
come from political opposition but from the ACA.

The Telecoms share scandal hit Samy Vellu from 1992 and lasted almost
two years as he was publicly villified by the DAP even as the ACA
conducted a full inquiry only to clear him of all charges.

``The Telecoms share proceeds helped to pay for the educational
expenses the party had incurred, especially the setting up of Tafe
College,'' Samy Vellu said.

But he said the issue was misunderstood by many.

``It was a really bad time for me ... a bad dream,'' Samy Vellu said,
adding all that was behind him now.

With little opposition to his leadership in the MIC and the Indian
community, many say Samy Vellu will likely stay in power for some
years to come.

Asked how long he would like to remain on the job, Samy Vellu said:
``Like Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I too have a
vision to complete.

``It includes the setting up of a full-fledged university having four
faculties, including a medical college.

``I also want to set up a RM100 million education foundation for
Malaysian Indians in addition to several other projects,'' Samy Vellu
said.

``It would take about six to seven years to complete,'' he said. With
some project delays, that would take him to the year 2005.

Pix: BIG PLANS ... Samy Vellu's vision for the future includes the
setting up of a full-fledged university and a RM100 million education
foundation for Malaysian Indians. Left: Samy Vellu, then just 28,
seen with Sambanthan in a 1964 file picture.

Notes: STF- Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu is the first MIC president to
achieve an eighth term in office without contest. The victory is seen
as the crowning glory of a career that has spanned four decades.
However, this victory belies the underlying tensions surrounding the
issue of succession as Samy Vellu's final years draw near, writes K.
BARADAN.