Thursday, July 30, 2009

Pakatan, MIC supporters face off over Maika - Star

Jul 30, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR: Police had to close off roads near the MIC headquarters in Jalan Ipoh here as hundreds of Pakatan Rakyat and MIC supporters faced off over the Maika Holdings issue on Thursday.

DAP’s Selangor executive councillor Ronnie Liu handed a memorandum to Maika chief executive officer S. Vell Paari, asking him to set a deadline on when the shareholders will be refunded their money.

Both leaders had to come out of the building to calm down their supporters, who at about 12:30pm were involved in a shouting match.

Two truckloads of Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel arrived nad later managed to disperse the supporters.

Maika was formed in the early 1980s to boost the Indian community, but its poor performance saw an RM1 share plummet to 30sen since.

Unhappy shareholders are seeking a return on their investments.

Vell Paari, who is MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu’s son, said that he was ready to repay the shareholders but was unable to do so due to an injunction obtained against the sale of an insurance company by Nesa Cooperation.

Nesa, a major Maika shareholder, is headed by former MIC deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam.

In 2007, Maika shareholders had approved the sale of the company’s cash cow Oriental Capital Assurance Bhd, but Nesa rejected the deal, saying that it would not fully benefit the 60,000-plus Maika shareholders.

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