MG Pandithan was seen as a threat 12 years back and was unceremoniously sacked by S Samy Vellu just to protect his own interest to remain in power. That battle was between the elite educated rich against the downtrodden poor. Today the scenario remains the same but it is the elite educated rich who are offering the olive branch to the downtrodden poor.

It was Samy who stood in the way of unifying the Indians under Barisan Nasional. Today, when the Indian support has been diluted by All-Malaysian Indian Progressive Front (IPF), People's Progressive Party and Keadilan, Samy is now begging Pandithan to dissolve IPF and to bring all the dissidents back into MIC. When Barisan Nasional was strong, Pandithan hardly merited anything, but today, when the grandmaster Dr Mahathir Mohmad is at his weakest, Samy has no choice but to invite Pandithan and his band of dissidents back.

There are no guarantees that Pandithan will not be chucked out like used tissue paper in the near future. It is interesting to note that Pandithan's name was conveniently left out in the recent appointments in Mahathirs "cabinet reshuffle". After all that he has done to help BN in the by-elections, he was not even considered for a cabinet post- it seems he is a lesser Indian leader after all. The dark Samy cloud still hangs above his head, and the only way this cloud will "clear" is by dissolving IPF and joining MIC en bloc.

Mahathir has lost the Malay support, insulted the Chinese to regain the Malay support, and failed miserably. The resultant loss of Chinese support leaves him no choice but to rally the dwindling Indian support. Unity talks seem to be the order of the day, first it was Malay, then Indian, next we will have Chinese ones and maybe Orang Asli soon.

Nobody in BN seems interested in Malaysian unity talks; to keep the dacing balanced, it seems it is best to keep the races united separately. This delicate racial game being played is only designed to divide and rule.

For the sake of flagging Indian support, Samy is prepared to lick his own spit that is now 12 years old. He should have treated Pandithan with more respect in the first place. Respect in need is no respect at all.