Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 31^st July 2011: 

Palanivel makes dubious history – the first “I help you, you help me” barter Cabinet appointment in nation’s 54 year history

MIC President Datuk G Palanivel has made dubious history – being the first, unashamed and most blatant “I help you, you help me” barter Cabinet appointment in the nation’s 54-year history, nothing to do whatsoever with his personal merit or quality!

It must rank as the most cynical Cabinet appointment ever made in Malaysian history under six Prime Ministers.

Palanivel also made dubious history in other aspects.

Although the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that he was returning to his father Tun Razak’s practice of having two MIC Ministers, there is a great difference: In Tun Razak’s time in 1976, MIC was in a position of strength but today in 2011 MIC is in position of unprecedented weakness.

In his speech yesterday, Palanivel revealed that MIC had about 600,000 members nationwide of which 390,000 are voters.

MIC must be the only political party in the country where less than two-thirds of its membership are voters.

Palanivel’s “barter” appointment, announced at the “Don’t debate Interlok novel” 65th MIC General Assembly yesterday, will inflate an already over-bloated Cabinet and set dubious records of :

• The most number (six with Palanivel) of Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department or some 20% of the Cabinet strength; and

• The most number of Senators in the Cabinet.

All in all, a Cabinet appointment not in the spirit of “People First, Performance Now” but “BN leaders first, Performance later” – further undermining the legitimacy of the Najib Cabinet.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Ipoh Timor