The more the merrier?

A few days back, S Nallakarupan, who achieved fame as Anwar Ibrahim's former tennis partner, announced that he has formed a new Indian political party known as Malaysian Indian United Party (MIUP). He explained that he received the inspiration of forming a new party to cater for Indian Malaysians after quitting PKR, of which he was a member for almost a year. Way before that, he has also served as the Youth Leader of Malaysian Indian Congress during his early days in politics.

The newly formed MIUP was approved by the government on Sept 14. Dato' Nalla announced that he will be the party president and he has identified a team of capable leaders who will help him to run the racially charged political party. He made it clear in a recent press conference that the primary aim of the party will be to 'bring up' the Indian community which is lagging in economic, political and social development. He also vowed to uplift the standard of living of rural Indians and to help socially problematic Indian youths like those involved in gangsterism. Malaysiakini has reported that the party which has 100 members for now has planned to gather 3,000 to 4,000 members by next month and at least 20,000 new members in three to four months time.

Being the minority community in Malaysia, Indians now have more than enough political parties to cater their needs - MIC, IPF, PPP and now MIUP has joined the club. Of course, the more the merrier! But, will MIUP play a better role compared to the other political parties in projecting the voice of the minority Indians and to uplift their living standard to a better height? It might be too early to decide now. We shall wait some time to see what MIUP has in its mind for the Malaysian Indians and how well can they execute their plans as promised.

Today, Dato' Nalla gave a 10 minutes interview for Bolehland explaining his motive of coming up with a political party. The interview was conducted mainly in Tamil and a little bit of English here and there. He answered some of the questions raised by the readers and commented on several issues related to the party. He further expressed his happiness that his few days old party has started to reach the people and has become a word of mouth in some areas. Commenting for Bolehland, he stressed that he'll be explaining on the party's plans and objective in detail during its official launch next month.

The fully translated transcrip of the interview is yet to be ready. Keep an eye on Bolehland for more updates. Meanwhile, you may download the audio clip of the interview with Dato’ Nalla
HERE.



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