Cooperative's constitution dictates that only those not on the board of directors are eligible to be appointed as vice president or president.
KUALA LUMPUR: NESA cooperative’s panel lawyer K Saraswathy today dismissed speculation that ‘Oms’ Thiagarajan has his sights on ‘hijacking’ the cooperative from MIC to PKR.
“NESA is a cooperative set up to upgrade the living standard of its members and it will not take sides with any political movement.
Thiagarajan, a businessman from Klang and a close ally of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, is said to be eyeing a director’s seat at NESA’s annual delegates conference on June 30.
It was reported that Thiagarajan is keen to convert NESA into an economic vehicle for PKR’s Indians with the support of the Pakatan-led Selangor government.
N Ratha Krishnan, NESA’s internal auditor and vice president of PKR Kuala Langat, and M Periasamy, the general manager of Tamil daily, Makkal Osai are also eyeing a seat on NESA’s board of directors.
Saraswathy said the news report in FMT recently gave the impression that there was a mischievous plot to undermine ‘Oms’ Thiagarajan’s reputation by suggesting that he wants to eventually head NESA.
“First of all, Thiagarajan has no necessity to hijack the cooperative from MIC to PKR since the current vice president V Nadarajan is a PKR member,” said Saraswathy.
Nadarajan, who was with People Progressive Party (PPP), joined PKR in 2009 along with 2,000 PPP members during the Bukit Selambau by-election.
“Hence, we cannot see the rationale behind the article which claimed Thiagarajan is attempting to hijack NESA from MIC to PKR,” said Saraswathy.
She also pointed that there is no room for Thiagarajan to be appointed as a vice president if he is elected as a director.
“According to NESA constitution only those not on the board of directors are eligible to be appointed as vice president or president.”
Sources earlier said Thiagarajan was expected to be appointed as the vice president of NESA, replacing Nadarajan, and to eventually put him in a position to take over as president.
“The news report is clear evidence that there is a group of people out to mislead NESA members with inaccurate information and to sideline Thiagarajan,” said Sarawathy.
‘MIC has done nothing’
She also shot down the view that NESA was groomed by MIC.
“No, there is no such thing,” she said.
She said NESA has been functioning under capable individuals after incumbent president S Subramaniam was taken ill.
“Yes, most of the shareholders are MIC members but the former MIC chief S Samy Vellu and the current party top leadership did not contribute anything for the betterment of NESA.”
Worse still, she added, that the MIC leadership had on many occasions attempted to destroy the cooperative and in the process NESA lost millions of dollars and properties.
“NESA is a cooperative to help out the Indian community. It is not here to serve the interest of any political party,” said.
She also said that she aware of the people behind the news report and will reveal their names at the NESA annual conference.
Contacted later, Thiagarajan said that he will come out with a statement in two days’ time.
A plot in place
Meanwhile, NESA board of director KP Samy said that there was a plot to reduce the power of the cooperative president Subramaniam.
“They are working very hard to get rid of the president in order to ‘dominate’ NESA,” he told reporters here this evening.
He said this was the first time NESA decided to have an election for all the seven board of directors. Previously only four out of seven seats were contested while the remaining three positions were appointed by the president.
“It is learnt that there is a move to amend the constitution so that all directors would be elected,” said Samy.
But he said the new amendment would not go down well with the delegates as it would restrain the president’s power.
“For the last 30 years the president had the ultimate power to appoint three board of directors. But, it is seems like they are taking advantage to hijack NESA from Subramaniam who still sick.
Samy also dismissed allegations that he would try to bring MIC president G Palanivel as the NESA new president.
“I am a MIC member for the last 40 years. And all the while I had thrown my support to Subramaniam and his camp,” said.
“It is a baseless allegation to tarnish my name and reputation in NESA,” he added.
S Nadarajan, the younger brother of Subramaniam, meanwhile accused NESA chief executive officer R Rajannan as the man behind all the internal problems faced by the cooperative.
He said Rajannan was the ‘culprit’ who rejected his nomination form when he wanted to contest for a director’s post.
“I submitted the application on June 19, keen to contest for a board of director seat. Once, my nomination was accepted, NESA told me that they will forward the application to Registrar of Societies (ROS) in order to get a ‘clearance’ letter. The letter is compulsory to compete in the election”.
“However, on June 22 which is the closing date for nomination, NESA officers called and asked me to get the letter of clearance from ROS,” he added.
Nadarajan said he only managed to get the letter on June 25 after the closing date as June 23 and 24th were the weekend.
“I was shocked when Rajannan rejected my application, saying that the application was sent after the closing date,” said Nadarajan.
NESA is one of the largest Indian-based cooperatives in the country with about 40,000 members.
