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Malaysia's
highest ranking Sikh quits ruling party
WSN Network
KUALA LUMPUR:
Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) vice president Tan Sri Karnail Singh
Nijhar, the highest ranking Sikh in the Tamil-dominated party, has
quit after a fallout with party chief S. Samy Vellu. Nijhar declined
to comment on his resignation, saying the party would make the
announcement shortly, the New Straits Times reported Thursday.
Nijhar stormed out
of the party office May 15 after the removal of party leader S.
Subramanium. News cameraman waiting outside saw he was “visibly
upset” and news reports quoted him as saying: “How can you be so
cruel? How can you simply sack a man?”
Nijhar is one of the
three vice-presidents of the Malaysian Indian Congress and is the
highest ranking Punjabi and Sikh in the political party which is
dominated by Tamils. However, he is not the sole Sikh in the
Malaysian parliament as the other one is Karpal Singh who is from
the opposition Democratic Action Party.
Nijhar’s
disagreements with Vellu are well-known. He was dropped from the
nominees’ list for the general election in March after he
represented Subang in parliament from 2004 to 2008.
Some MIC sources
said Nijhar had made way for younger leaders as part of plans to
revamp the organisation, something Vellu had spoken about earlier
this month.
There are an
estimated 100,000 Sikhs in Malaysia. MIC has traditionally spoken
for the 2.6 million Malaysian Indian community, but lost ground
badly in the March election. Vellu himself lost his ninth bid for
re-election.
Nijhar is a largely
self-made man whose childhood was at a kampung house without any
basic amenities and where he had to depend on wells for water. While
a student at St Xavier's Institution in Penang, he used to earn
money as a ball boy at clubs with tennis courts. But this did not
stop him from excelling in school. He topped the school examinations
between 1947 and 1954.
In the Malaysian
parliament, he sat on the Public Accounts Committee and also served
on the National Unity Committee. He was dropped as a candidate for
the 2008 general elections. The Barisan Nasional candidate for the
constituency, S. Murugeson was defeated by the candidate from the
Justice Party, Sivarasa Rasiah.
4
June,
2008
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