By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) has revived 50 inactive branches and added 8,000 new members to its ranks as part of its ‘re-branding’ after a poll debacle in March.
Its long-time president S. Samy Vellu is confident of opening 200 new branches in the next two months.
“Since the re-branding, various changes and renewals had been made in the party’s management machinery. We have changed the MIC’s political culture so that the party machinery is more effective and dynamic,” he told Bernama, Malaysia’s official news agency.
The party that has traditionally spoken for over 2.5 million Indian settlers who form nearly eight percent of Malaysia’s 28 million population, lost 16 parliamentary seats and could win only three in the parliamentary polls.
Vellu said efforts were also being made to register new members online in a bid to increase membership.
He hoped the MIC Youth and Wanita MIC, the women’s wing, in each state would recruit 25,000 and 10,000 new members respectively.
Presently, he said, there are 630,000 party members in 3,300 branches throughout the country, the New Straits Times said Saturday.
Vellu said after the re-branding exercise was over, the party will unveil a “MIC Roadmap” to enhance the commitment of branch chairmen as well as to enhance their political awareness with regard to the Indian community.
Vellu, a former works minister, himself lost his ninth bid at re-election to the parliament and has been under pressure to quit.
MIC is part of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) that lost the two-thirds majority in the parliament.
With Vellu defeated, the MIC is represented in the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi by its secretary-general S. Subramaniam, who is the human resource minister.