Commotion during Samy's visit to BN ops centre in Bagan Dalam

By : Sharanjit Singh and S. Arulldas

BUTTERWORTH, Tues:

There was a slight commotion when embattled MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu was about to leave the BN operation centre in Bagan Dalam here today.

A group tried to gatecrash the function but were prevented by police men on standby everywhere Samy Vellu went. Several women were heard screaming that they wanted to meet him. The group eventually dispersed.

Earlier, Samy told the party’s candidates to toil for every vote as the campaign for the 12th general election heats up. “They have to slog it out. The MIC along with our BN partners will help them by going from house-to-house,” he said. “We will convince voters to continue supporting us.”

Citing the Bagan Dalam and Prai state seats that the MIC is contesting in Penang as examples, he said the level of support for the party candidates was slowly improving. “I am happy that we have recovered slightly in Bagan Dalam where our candidate was getting below 50 per cent support previously,” he said. “It has now gone up slightly and this is good. The situation is different in Prai but it is also recovering.”

Samy Vellu earlier visited the Taman Chai Leng wet market and met residents at a community hall there. The MIC has fielded incumbent P.K. Subbaiyah to contest in Bagan Dalam where the state executive councillor is facing the DAP’s V. Tanasekharan.

In Prai, MIC newcomer L. Krishnan is facing the DAP’s Professor P. Ramasamy in what is fast turning out to be a bruising battle for the hot seat. Both seats have come under the spotlight as candidates from both sides struggle to win over voters, especially the sizeable number of Indians in the constituencies.

Samy Vellu said many grouses and complaints raised by people in the constituencies had been resolved. Among the issues that had been raised were malfunctioning lifts at the Taman Teluk Indah flats which had been out of order for the past few years. The 21-storey flats only had four working lifts in the six blocks housing about 5,000 families who will be voting in Prai.

Samy Vellu said the state government had allocated RM1 million while the federal government had come up with another RM3.5 million to repair the lifts. The government had also allocated another RM4 million to upgrade the Taman Chai Leng wet market.

Asked why the problems were only being attended to now, Samy Vellu said a decision to repair the lifts was made six months ago. However, he said the money was released by the Treasury to the local council before it was redirected to his ministry. “This was not something that could be done in a day or two. Nevertheless, the problem is resolved now,” he said.

On the situation in other states, Samy said he was going all over to help MIC candidates in the campaign.

“I am spending one day in Sungai Siput and every other day elsewhere to help campaign for the other MIC candidates,” he said. “I am especially happy with the situation in Johor where the Menteri Besar had taken charge by helping out the MIC’s campaign.”