Malaysian Indian Congress  

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The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC or Kongres India Se-Malaysia) is a Malaysian political party and one of the founding members of the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, previously known as the Alliance, that has been in power since the country achieved independence in 1957.

Logo of the Malaysian Indian Congress, MIC

2.   MIC was founded by John A. Thivy in August 1946, at the end of World War II, to fight along for Indian independence from British colonial. After India obtained its independence, MIC involved itself in the struggle for Malaysian independence that was achieved in 1957. Positioning itself for representation on behalf of the Indian community in the postwar development of the country, MIC joined the Alliance, comprising the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) in 1954 which became the Barisan Nasional in 1973 with further expansion in the number of component parties. Like the many racial-based political parties in multi-racial Malaysia, membership in MIC is limited to ethnic Indians, the majority being Tamils descended from Indian migrants.


3.   MIC contested in the 1952 Kuala Lumpur Municipal Elections but was defeated. In 1954, it became the third partner in the Alliance with the Malay-based UMNO and the Malaysian Chinese-based MCA. On August 31, 1957, independence was achieved under the Merdeka Agreement, to which the party's fifth president, Tun V.T. Sambanthan, was a signatory. During Tan Sri V. Manickavasagam's term as the sixth president, the MIC became part of the Barisan Nasional. The party sponsored the Nesa Multipurpose Cooperative and the MIC Unit Trust as part of its programme for economic ventures, and also set up the MIC Education Fund for members’ children and the Malaysian Indian Scholarship for higher education. Nevertheless, Samy Vellu, who is the longest serving leader of a mainstream Malaysian political party, having been MIC president since October 12, 1979 has not been without controversy, marked by allegations of corruption and a perceived decline in Malaysian Indian welfare. In 2006, Samy Vellu successfully ousted his long-time deputy, Dato' S Subramaniam and replaced him with Dato G Palanivel in the 2006 party elections.


4.   More than 10,000 students have obtained loans and scholarships totalling about RM60mil in the past 20 years from the Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED) fund, the education arm of the MIC. The party sponsored the Nesa Multipurpose Cooperative and the MIC Unit Trust as part of its programme for economic ventures, and also set up the MIC Education Fund for members’ children and the Malaysian Indian Scholarship for higher education. MIC as the main party representing Malaysian Indians, has succeeded in getting the government to make a statement that the government would help Indians to achieve 3% equity by the year 2020 in the business sector as a measure of equitable equity distribution, although the expectation was that the target ought to be achieved in the year 2010.


5.   The Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology University (AIMST) is the major ongoing project by MIC. It has already commenced operations and is offering a range of science and technology-based programmes including Medicine. It was founded on March 15, 2001, by the Maju Institute of Educational Development (MIED), the educational arm of the MIC.


6.   As an ethnic political party like the many other parties in the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional, MIC claims to represent the Malaysian Indians for its part. However its effectiveness as a champion of Malaysian Indians is yet to be seen. Lack of skills in leadership, teamwork, finance, planning, project management and the previous failure of MIC sponsored RM 100 million MAIKA Holdings project and infighting among its leaders had cost the party and Indians dearly. Its records in social development and bringing progress to the Indians in the country has been feeble.

The MIC has been largely limited to have just one cabinet minister since the country obtained its independence in 1957 (except once during the presidency of Tun V.T Sambanthan), whereas the number of Chinese and Malay Ministers have been increasing ever since.

In the recent Ninth Malaysia Plan for example, while the MIC wanted to have a plan for Indians to achieve 3% equity in the business sector by 2010, the Malaysian Government responded with deferred target to be reached by the year 2020, with no specific action plans in place to make it possible. The number of Tamil schools have dwindled since independence. Destruction of Hindu temples on the basis of expansion of roads or illegal construction is commonplace while proper allocation of land for temple grounds or approval for temple building is an extreme rarity. University intake of Indian students, specially in professional courses, has been dwindling. No statistics available, even from the MIC, on the number of Indian children not enrolled in schools. Even the number of Tamil school teachers are inadequate. Lack of social and economic progress is also reflected in the increasing crime rate in the country prompting even the Police to comment that the Indian prison inmates are disproportionately high.

There is no clear vision or concerted action plan coming forth from the MIC on improving the Indians in the country. This was made all the more apparent when HINDRAF or Hindu Rights Action Force is a coalition of 30 Hindu Non-Governmental organizations organized a rally on Sunday, 25 November 2007 to submit the petition at the British High Commission stating their dissafaction with the Malaysian government and MIC in the improving the economic situation of Indians in Malaysia.

2008 General Election

In the March 2008 General Election, S. Samy Vellu lost his seat. Also losing their seats were two MIC Vice-Presidents as well as the heads of the women's wing and the youth wing. Such loses faced by the traditional ethnic Indian component party of the ruling National Front (BN) coalition has been unprecedented in Malaysia. Ethnic Indian voters, frustrated with the MIC's slavish acceptance of UMNO's 'bumiputra policy' and doubts about integrity of MIC's leadership, appear to have withdrawn their electoral support of the MIC and other BN coalition parties like UMNO, MCA, People's Progressive Party (PPP) and Gerakan in favour of the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), People's Justice Party (PKR) and the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). This leaves many Malaysians wondering how ethnic Indians will now be represented in the traditional multi-ethnic cabinet since there are now only three MIC MPs. All of them lack full ministerial experience. It could be that the prime minister will have to try all three of them out with cabinet positions and look for ethnic Indian MPs or part ethnic Indian from amongst the other political parties if ethnic Indians are still to be represented in the cabinet according the multi-ethnic formula used to fill the previous cabinet. If there are no suitable ethnic Indian candidates, it could be that the East Malaysian BN component parties will benefit in getting places in the first 2008 cabinet.

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