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UPDATED----Nov.22, 2010
BIO:
Samy Vellu Sangalimuthu, 74, is a Malaysian politician. He is the longest serving
President of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a component
party of the Barisan Nasional coalition since 1979, for 10 consecutive terms. He was the Works Minister
of Malaysia and the longest serving minister in the Cabinet of
Malaysia. He was also the only NRI Malaysian Indian minister
- Samy Vellu is married to Datin Seri Indrani Samy Vellu, his second
wife, a restaurant owner.
- He has one son, Vell Paari,
45, a high school drop-out who currently manages MAIKA Holdings, advisor of Putera and Pemuda Malaysian Indian Congress.. He has been appointed as Chairman of Unity and Community Development of Malaysian Indian Congress by its Central Working Committee.
- His daughter-in-law, Shaila Nair, 33, is a singer who attracted
notoriety in 2007 when a couple of lewd clips involving her were
widely circulated.
- In the same year, Vell Paari was also
implicated in the 'mysterious death' of actress K. Sujatha
In 1919, his father, who had arrived from India,
moved between estates in search of better wages and was working
as a labourer at the coal mines in Batu Arang.
- Samy Vellu dropped out and
took odd jobs while attending night classes.
- After his mother's
death in 1950, he left for Kuala Lumpur with his father. There,
he began work as a bus conductor with G.T.C. transport company
- In Kuala Lumpur, he met Y. Thomas, another
bus conductor, became good friends but years later Thomas
would challenge him for the party presidency.
- Somtimes, he only
ate one meal a day due to job problems.
- He met Teo Philips,
a contractor who got him work as an office boy in
architectural firm and he also
had to clean Vethavanam's house, wash his car and water the garden.
- Vethavanam encouraged him to learn english and to take architecture classes in draughtsmanship. He did.
Entered politics:
- Samy Vellu formed a theatre group that staged dramas
in estates and small towns. He was leading actor along with V. Govindaraj, most successful dramas was entitled Nattpu and later entered politics and stayed loyal to each other.
- Until 2006, he served to the Central Executive Committee
- At the age of 23, in 1959, he and Govindaraj joined
the Batu Caves MIC branch. After 5 years, he was elected Selangor MIC committee member and the
head of the party
- His boldness, a disciplined, determined
man and as well dressed man, made headlines news by climbing up
the Indonesian embassy's flag pole, pulling down the flag and
burning it. He was charged in court and fined RM2. He was called Hero Malaysia
on the front pages
- Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) started broadcasting Tamil news and hewas appointed as a newscaster.
- In 1974, he became a Member
of Parliament and won the Selangor MIC's secretary post on the sixth attempt,
- In 1960, he got married
- He was offered a government post after the 1978
General Election when he was made Deputy Minister of the Housing
and Local Government Ministry
- Manickavasagam died in October 1979, Samy Vellu
became as the Acting President.
- In 1979, Samy Vellu was first appointed to the Malaysian cabinet to serve until
1989 as the Works Minister
- In 1989, he became Malaysia's
Minister for Energy, Telecommunication until 1995
- In 1995, he returned
to the Works Ministry until 2008 when he lost his parliamentary
seat to Dr. D. Michael Jeyakumar in March 2008 general election.
FOUNDER:
- Maju Institute of Educational
Development (MIED), a non-profit organisation that provides educational
loans and scholarship to deserving Indian-Malaysian students
- Helped to establish a TAFE College-Seremban in collaboration
with TAFE, Western Australia.
- Collaboration with Bristol University, he has
started the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science & Technology
(AIMST)
- Founder and Chairman of the Workers Housing Cooperation
Society (KPJ) and Education Cooperative Society, Koperasi Didik.
Alleged to have been involved in several money scandals when holding his post as Works Minister of Malaysia
- MAIKA.--Samy Vellu is often accused of sucking up shares of many of Malaysia's
companies. And the MAIKA Telecom Share Scandal continues to
haunt him. Samy Vellu is alleged to have siphoned off 9 million
(of the original 10 million) Telekom shares that were allocated
to MAIKA. He had allegedly used three companies
- AIMST Scandal--
Samy Vellu has committed his energy to building the
Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology (AIMST). --AIMST, built with donations collected from the Malaysian
NRIs
- MIED Scandal-
Ms P. Chitrakala Vasu, a former top officer of the Malaysian Indian
Congress's(MIC) education arm Maju Institute of Education Development
(MIED) alleged that party president S. Samy Vellu had transferred
RM2 million (S$833,000) from government funds to a MIC welfare
foundation.
- Electoral Fraud--
There have also been allegations that Samy Vellu uses thugs to
intimidate his political opponents, and that he uses phantom voters
to win elections both at the party and the parliamentary levels[11].
A petition by Samy Vellu's challenger, Dr Jeyakumar Devar
These allegations were in head lines by opposition
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