After a long arduous challenging and certainly fulfilling career of sacrifice and service the iconic Dato’ Seri S.Samy Vellu has decided to leave the political filed which he has dominated over more than four decades.
Dato’ Seri is a man that began his life in the most humble of surroundings and because of universally embraced virtues of hard work, commitment, perseverance and tenacity has grown to become one of the most outstanding and prominent Indian leaders in Malaysia and also a well known and reputable minister in various ministries during his tenure in the government and cabinet.
Since he took over the presidency of the MIC in 1979 he has helped the MIC to become a cohesive united and efficient platform to serve the Indian community in the country. His notable achievements in the party include starting the Maju Institute of Educational Development in 1985. MIED was established in order to promote higher education for Indian children in Malaysia from poor background. This institution till today has given loans and grants to 14,600 students to facilitate them to go through territorial education in which 8,600 students have qualified in various fields. In the field of medicine, engineering and all other related technical field such as IT, Economic and Arts.
Besides that Dato’ Seri was also the catalyst in conceptualizing and manifesting the dream of owning a university for the community called AIMST. The AIMST University was established on 15th March 2001 with the objective of providing tertiary education to Malaysian Indian students who traveled all over the world to get their education at a very high cost. The University has 2,600 students at the moment and has moved into its well designed state of the art campus costing RM 500 million.
Another milestone that Dato’ Seri had the foresight to actualize was the formation of the workers housing Cooperatives Society. It was establish to provide low cost housing for Indians to purchase and until today this co-operative Society has build more than 2,000 houses for its members. In the field of social reform and reengineering Dato’ Seri was instrumental in the formation of Yayasan Strategik Social(YSS).
This Social strategic was establish in 1998 to study conditions of Indians, to promote new programmes, to prepare reports in order to raise it up in the Malaysian Cabinet. This foundation was responsible to prepare report to request the Government to turn daily rated estate workers wages to monthly salary and many other economic strategy papers were prepared the foundation for Government attention. Many of the recommendation were accepted by the Government to raise the living standards of Indians to involve greater involvement of the Government in the future of the Indian community in Malaysia.
All these monumental achievements were a result of untiring work and a deep rooted desire to uplift the social, economic and educational well being of the Indian community in this blessed country. But having served the community and country for so long Dato’ Seri has decided to take a much needed and well deserved break from politics and move on to a role to help the nation in other ways.
But being the man that he is he wouldn’t take such a decision unless he is totally sure his beloved party is in good hands and it’s a certainty that Datuk G.Palanivel is the man for the job. Though he has big shoes to fill Datuk G. Palani is the most apt person to take over the reins of the party. As leaders their styles of leadership are very different and contrasting but nevertheless their singularity of purpose and love for community makes them similar in many ways.
Datuk G Palanivel is a senior politician and a seasoned champion of issues close to the heart of the community and has constantly and consistently demonstrated his ability to put the communities interest above all else.
Beginning his career as a consumer activist is an early indication of his passion for service and his reverence for making sure that no one is deceived of their rights. His eminent personality caught the eye of Dato’ Seri as far back as the 1980s when he was invited to become his press secretary and subsequently was chosen as a parliamentary candidate in the 1990 General Election. Within the party he rose steadily up the hierarchy in his unassuming yet decisive leadership to attain the post of Deputy President since 2006.
Dato’ G Palani’s demeanor and man of the people charisma make him very accessible and very consensus based when making a decisions. He is also equally at ease meeting the man on the street or chairing high level government meetings. His charming personality belies a strong and firm inner strength that isn’t afraid to make tough choices if warranted. His deep and abiding faith in a higher power and the humility that comes from such inner faith sets him apart from many others and this aspect of him has often been an inspiration to the younger generations.
With the support and able dynamism of Datuk Dr. S Subramaniam, Datuk S K Devamany and Datuk M Saravanan and the strength of solidarity from the Central Working Committee I’m sure that Datuk G Palanivel will be able to lead the party to higher and greater heights and create his own lasting and impactful legacy in the Indian community’s landscape in Malaysia. The torch passes on and will burn brighter and more gloriously in time to come.
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