MIC may not be yielding the influence as able to throw its weight around during the looming state polls yet the surprising choice of its once youth wing secretary S.P. Punithan to join Perikatan Nasional (PN) instead of a Pakatan Harapan (PH) component party can be morally disturbing to the unity government cause.
Talking about giving moral victory to the PAS-Bersatu-Gerakan coalition, a party source reckoned that the Selangor MIC Youth chief is more likely to join Bersatu as an associate member although Gerakan seems to be a better bet for him judging from its multiracial party composition.
“But for an energetic leader in his late 30s, Bersatu surely yields more influence in the upcoming state polls than Gerakan,” quipped the source.
Whether it is Bersatu or Gerakan, MIC president Tan Sri S.A. Vigneswaran has confirmed that Punithan who was also a former central working committee member (CWC) has quit the party with immediate effect today to join PN.
“He (Punithan) came to see me two days ago. We spoke at length about politics and his future,” the former Dewan Negara president (April 2016-June 2020) told the Malay language version of Malaysiakini.
“In the meeting, he told his wish to leave MIC and continue his political career with PN. I accept his decision. I hereby wish brother Punithan the best of luck with PN.”
Punithan will be the second MIC leader to exit the party after Senator Datuk Sivaraj Chandran – the party’s only representative in Dewan Negara – who walked out of the party on Tuesday (June 27) following discontentment over being perceived as a threat to the present leadership.
But given that Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was instrumental in securing his three-year senatorship (from March 20-March 19, 2026), it is unlikely that the former MIC vice-president and Taman Bukit Kuchai Baru branch head would associate himself with the so-called ‘green wave element’.
This leaves the door open for the former MIC Youth chief to rally himself and his supporters to join PH component parties in the likes of PKR or DAP. – June 30, 2023
