TV PAKATAN RAKYAT

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim succeeded today in bringing into PKR ex-MIC vice president Datuk S.S. Subramaniam and the members of 12 MIC branches. The senior ex-MIC man brought with him his younger brother and some 2,500 members from 10 MIC branches within Petaling Jaya and Meru, Klang into the PKR fold. The defections were touted as a boost for the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) but it is unclear how significant Subramaniam’s move is, considering he has little influence left in the Barisan Nasional (BN) party.

But coming on the heels of former MCA vice-president Datuk Chua Jui Meng’s defection into PKR last week, Anwar will be hoping to gain some momentum from Subramaniam’s decision to join PKR. Besides Subramaniam and Chua, Anwar had also succeeded in attracting former Umno minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim into PKR as attempts to strengthen his party’s position as a lynchpin in PR.He will also be hoping the defections can bolster his party’s and PR’s claims of being a truly multiracial platform in his quest to dethrone BN and take federal power. Speaking before the mostly Indian crowd numbering some 300 people at a function announcing the defections, Subramaniam said he had been supportive of PKR's multiracial, multicultural policies for a long time but only gained courage to jump after much thinking.

"In Barisan Nasional, MIC occupies the lowest place," he said, stressing that the party was wracked by in-fighting caused by party chief Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu's preferential treatment towards members of his own caste. It is an open secret that Subramaniam had opposed Samy Vellu on many occasions, causing him to be dropped from the vice-president’S post in 1994 in favour of his successor who bears a similar name, Dr S. Subramaniam. "But what we must have is a country that is united in diversity," said Subramaniam.