Some 50 disgruntled shareholders of MIC’s troubled investment arm Maika Holdings held a brief but noisy protest outside the Kuala Lumpur Court complex calling for MIC president S Samy Vellu’s resignation.

“Step aside! Step aside! Samy Vellu, step aside!” they chanted. The group also held banners denouncing the veteran politician’s alleged failure to uplift the Indian community.

Leading them was opposition party PKR’s national integration committee chief N Gobalakrishnan.

“Former health minister and deputy MCA chief Chua Soi Lek recently resigned from his party and government posts. We urge Samy (Vellu) to follow suit.

“Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should appoint in his place someone who is really capable of leading the Indian community,” he told Malaysiakini.

The protest took place just as Maika lawyers wrapped up their submissions in the chambers of Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Kang Hwee Gee to set aside an injunction obtained against it by a shareholding company.

Koperasi Nesa Pelbagai Bhd, a company which has 625,000 shares in Maika, applied to stop the sale of Maika’s insurance subsidiary Oriental Capital Assurance Bhd (OCAB).

The injunction is part of a suit filed by Nesa to declare Maika’s Aug 30, 2007 annual general meeting (AGM) and the resolutions passed in it as null and void and to be set aside.

The suit is being heard together with a similar one by eight individuals against Maika Holdings and four others.

Justice Kang fixed Jan 15 for for the plaintiffs’s lawyers to make their submissions.

They claim Maika’s shareholders had been obstructed from exercising their right to freely debate the motions at the AGM, the main agenda of which was the disposal of OCAB.

No dividends, statements of accounts

Maika executives said the RM129 million sale of OCAB would ensure that its shareholders - who have long waited for a return on their investments - get their money back as well as ensure the survival of Maika itself.


Some shareholders, however, believe the sale of OCAB - considered as Maika’s only ‘golden goose’ - would sound the death knell for the investment arm.

They have also demanded that an independent party look into the impact of OCAB’s disposal and advise accordingly.

Most of those who were at court today were Maika shareholders from Klang who had withdrawn substantial amounts of their life savings to invest in the company, headed by Samy Vellu’s son Vel Paari.

The company, however, has been a spectacular failure with many of its business ventures failing to take-off.

“Since Maika began, until today, we haven’t seen any dividends or statement of accounts,” said a shareholder, who only identified herself as Reckana, when met outside the court.