From Jeffri Saling
All year long, MIC had been shaping up to quit Barisan Nasional (BN) and switch camps to Perikatan Nasional (PN).
Through its control of critical Tamil media outlets, the party and its sole MP, M Saravanan in particular, have been hitting out at the Madani government.
Recently, the low status of MIC and fellow mosquito party MCA was confirmed when they were not even considered as factors in the Cabinet reshuffle.
As I have written before, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim needed Umno to form the government. He didn’t need MIC and MCA, which were just excess baggage.
Umno helms the state governments in Pahang, Perak, Melaka and Johor and has a deputy prime minister and many federal ministers.
MCA has only two MPs, two senators and eight assemblymen nationwide.
MIC’s position is even weaker, with just one MP, two senators and five assemblymen.
All of this is dependent on Umno‘s generosity. They can’t win anything on their own.
On the other side of the coin, Bersatu may have had the leading position in PN but it has clearly been the junior partner to PAS. Pulling off an internal coup in Perlis was foolish in the extreme.
Now that Muhyiddin and gang are being sidelined in Bersatu itself, and PN as a whole, what will happen to MIC’s grand plan?
What will happen to the other minnows like Malaysian Indian People’s Party, P Ramasamy’s Urimai, P Waytha Moorthy’s Malaysian Advancement Party, Bersatu’s associate wing and PAS‘s non-Muslim supporters wing?
Perhaps it’s time for all of them to close shop instead of fighting for crumbs – because all of the tantrums have come to naught.
Jeffri Saling is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
