Kedah MB: PAS does not need MIC support to do well
Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said he no longer wants to indulge MIC leaders' statements including the party's warning that it will not support him in the 15th general election (GE15).
Sanusi, who took over as state leader from Mukhriz Mahathir last year, said that in the last 14th general election (GE14) the party also did not support PAS.
He even claimed that most of MIC's party members supported Pakatan Harapan.
"Malas layan (reluctant to indulge) as even in GE14, MIC did not support us either. Most of them voted for Harapan. That's why MIC was left with only one seat.
"The fact is that MIC needs votes from non-Indians," he told Berita Harian.
MIC deputy president M Saravanan is the party's sole representative in the Dewan Rakyat. He has been at the forefront of an ongoing war of words with Sanusi ever since the latter announced that Kedah would not recognise Thaipusam as a public holiday this year due to the Covid-19 situation.
Sanusi was commenting on a statement by MIC President SA Vigneswaran who described him as an inexperienced leader who did not have the ability to 'socialise' with other races.
Following that, Vigneswaran warned that the MIC would arbitrarily support Sanusi in GE15 for the sake of political interests.
The recent furore erupted after Sanusi announced that the public holiday would be cancelled, although religious events for the occasion are still allowed with strict conditions.
Thaipusam had been a public holiday in Kedah since 2014.
The decision to nix the holiday has courted flak from MIC, Harapan, and even former Umno president Najib Abdul Razak.
In response to the criticism, Sanusi said the move was not meant to sideline Hindus and that MIC should lobby the federal government to make it a national holiday.
Prior to this, the Jeneri state assemblyperson had been accused of being anti-Hindu by critics, after the PAS state government demolished two Hindu temples.
He also hit back at critics then, by saying they should not be "drunk on the toddy of popularity".
Sanusi denied the remarks were racist but were instead metaphorical and proverbial.
