Roundtable of Malaysian Indian parties mooted

KUALA LUMPUR - Responding to the unity call of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, a Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) leader has mooted a roundtable conference of Indian political parties and groups.

A. Ananthan, a delegate to the party’s just-concluded 63rd annual conference, proposed that the party chief S. Samy Vellu take the initiative in this regard. “It is only through this that the Indian community can be united,” Ananthan told the conference.

Opening the conference, Najib urged the MIC and the Indian politicians and groups in general not to engage in internal squabbles and unite to serve the community better.

MIC, the country’s largest and oldest Indian-based party, is a constituent of the ruling alliance Barisan Nasional (BN).

Malaysia is home to 1.7 million Indians, most of them Tamils who settled here during the British era.

Najib told the conference that forming only 7.9 percent of the country’s population, the ethnic Indian community would be left behind if its leaders continued to engage in internal wrangles.

Najib is preparing the MIC and other constituents of the Barisan for the general election due in 2013. But there is speculation that he might advance the date.