By : Kumarendran.

Before I pen down on my views and suggestion on the issue of Maika Holdings, allow me to say that I am not a shareholder neither do my immediate family members, but I do still have my heart and soul on behalf of other Indian brothers and sisters in this country to voice out for the commonly known prejudice on Maika Holdings shares and issues.

Maika Holdings was touted as an economic vehicle and a miracle to lift the Indian poor from the shackles of poverty, Maika was launched with much hype and hope. The poor Indians - traditional MIC supporters, the lower middle-class and the working class Indians as well as a vast majority of plantation workers - were mesmerized into responding enthusiastically of Maika Holdings birth.

The poor plantation workers put their life savings into the venture, some scraping the barrel, others mortgaging their property and pawning the last of their jewellery. A vast majority also took loans at exorbitant rates to invest in a venture that promised dreams of hopes and tantalizing prospects.

Today, Maika Holdings seems to be the lost treasure of the Indians in this country. Almost 66,400 shareholders are being left dangling without much information on how and where the great treasure of Malaysian Indians once, Maika Holdings, has gone by. This issue needs to be prevailed among the rightful Indians in this country as the time has come where Indians have woke up from their norms of listening and believing what the leaders of Maika Holdings has to say more.

We have been always served so much of the hot news on Maika Holdings and as well on all the action so called taken to solve this woes, but what has lawful Indian shareholders of Maika Holdings has got at last out of this concern highlighted? We would say nothing but pain and sorrow of the failure of Maika Holdings. The new dawn of a golden opportunity that was promised to the Indian poor never arrived. Instead, each passing year only witnessed dashed hopes and broken promises that littered the broken the history of Maika. Many of the investors had since passed away, their spirits broken by the betrayal of the leader they trusted.

We have braved the debate between Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Datuk Shabery on the price hike of the petrol. We have even also seen the much highlighted land scam issue in Penang by YAB Tuan Lim Guan Eng and Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon recently.

We would say that it is the high tide for MIC president Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu and YB M. Kulasegaran, the DAP MP for Ipoh Barat to meet face to face too discuss further on the prolonging and disconcerted issue of the Maika Holdings in an open debate.

The best men to represent Maika Holdings will Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu, who has handled the whole issue related to Maika Holdings on behalf of the shareholders. The man behind voice of the affected Malaysian Indians would be YB M. Kulasegaran, the DAP MP for Ipoh Barat, the current opposition leader for Malaysian Indians who somehow rather a shareholder of Maika Holding. Just a point to ponder why he is the right man for this debate would be that because in October 2006, the MIC Johor Assemblyman for Tenggaroh, deceased Datuk S Krishnasamy assaulted M. Kulasegaran, the DAP MP for Ipoh Barat at the Maika annual general meeting (AGM) at Legend Hotel. Even though Kulasegaran lodged a police report, no action was taken against S Krishnasamy.

ACA who has been numerously alerted on this Maika Holdings issue has not been up to their performance due to involvement of few public and high prolific government figures on the ACA`s investigation. As to be said, an open debate is the best ever solution for the much awaiting Indians on who the fate has decided and acted on Maika Holdings share.

In spite of 25 years of history, the Maika scandal refuses to be buried. It keeps on surfacing, haunting and hounding the perpetrators of a crime that robbed the poor of their fair share of their due. The entire Indian community awaits the responses from MIC president Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu and M. Kulasegaran, the DAP MP for Ipoh Barat for the truth that lies underneath the carpets Maika Holdings in an open debate for an end to this question of Maika Holdings.

Last but not least to all the leaders of Maika Holdings is that there are many qualities that make a great leader. But having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.