FORMER MIC president S. Samy Vellu today let bygones be bygones and praised his former boss, calling Dr Mahathir Mohamad “a good man and good leader” during his tenure as prime minister.

But the 81-year-old former works minister declined to comment as to whether Dr Mahathir would make a good prime minister if Pakatan Harapan were to win the next elections.

“You see, I won’t say anything (whether I support him now or not) about Dr Mahathir. He is a good leader and a good man.

“I worked with him for 21 years and I always go and ask him for his advice (last time) and he will always advise me. It is also the same for the prime minister after him,” he said when asked by reporters at the 128th Thaipusam at Batu Caves today.

After the 2008 general election, Samy Vellu blamed Dr Mahathir for his loss to Dr Michael Jeyakumar in the Sg Siput constituency.

Two days before polling on March 8, Dr Mahathir, in an interview with Malaysiakini.com, said the Indian community’s problems could only be resolved by removing Samy Vellu.

In the interview, Dr Mahathir also said Samy Vellu had “done nothing to benefit the Indian community”.

He accused the MIC president of stifling Indian voices in Barisan Nasional by not allowing other Indian parties to step up.

As a result of that, Samy Vellu was defeated by the little-known PSM leader Dr Jeyakumar after eight uninterrupted terms in Sg Siput since 1974.

Speaking for the first time since his defeat in 2008, Samy Vellu told New Straits Times in 2012 that his loss was due to Dr Mahathir’s comments.

Last year, Samy Vellu said he did not sign the citizens’ declaration, as he “always stood by the sitting prime minister”. He was appointed the special envoy of infrastructure to India and South Asia in 2011.

On January 6, Samy Vellu’s son, MIC treasurer-general S. Vell Paari criticised the opposition for picking Dr Mahathir him as its prime minister candidate.

“Dr Mahathir is now talking about democracy and freedom. But Malaysia was denied democracy and freedom when he was in power,” Vell Paari was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times. – January 31, 2018.