Samy Vellu, the ‘lion cub’ who roared into politics

PETALING JAYA: Each time the humanitarian Mom A Mangalam thinks of S Samy Vellu, the late former MIC president, it’s Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” that involves thoughts.

It goes again to the times of 1964 when her charity was in dire want of cash. A younger Samy Vellu joined the fund-raising efforts by participating within the drama “Thanthaiyin Kural”, the Tamil model of Hamlet.

“He performed the function of a king, a personality he portrayed marvellously,” Mangalam mentioned within the guide “Samy Vellu, As We Know Him”. Her recollection is one among 97 tales written about him by his members of the family and acquaintances.

Mangalam, 96, is a co-founder and life chairman of the Pure Life Society in Puchong that helps the underprivileged and people in want.

She wrote that “Thanthaiyin Kural” was an enormous hit on the City Corridor in Kuala Lumpur and that the viewers included former MIC leaders, the late V T Sambanthan, V Manickavasagam and Athi Nahappan.

Samy Vellu used his placing abilities as an actor and communicator to impress the social gathering stalwarts.

Sambanthan used to name him “singga kutti” (lion cub).

Samy Vellu additionally produced and acted in a drama referred to as “Alli” within the mid-’50s, written by Tamil scholar Professor Varatharajan, who created a number of different performs to propagate Tamil tradition and language.

In the course of the communist insurgency, he featured in stage exhibits that carried a message for teenagers, urging them to be politically acutely aware.

He was impressed by nice Tamil artistes from India, particularly the late film star Sivaji Ganesan whose Tamil diction, like that of Samy Vellu’s, was impeccable. However Sivaji, not like Samy Vellu, failed in politics.

Samy Vellu introduced Tamil artistes to Malaysia by the Indian Welfare Reception Committee which was made up of varied teams of Indian origin that uncovered the group to realized folks.

As a newscaster, he grew to become a family identify, with folks recognising him by his identify, face and voice.

The recognition inspired Indians to hitch the MIC and nudged him up the political ranks. He continued to learn information till he grew to become a member of Parliament in 1974.

His one-time confidante P Chitrakala Vasu mentioned she by no means missed a Tamil radio programme within the Nineteen Eighties referred to as “Poocharam” (a string of flowers) that featured excerpts of Samy Vellu’s speeches.

She mentioned it was a pleasure listening to him converse each Sunday. “His oratory abilities and magnificence of supply accorded magnificence to Tamil that few may match.”

Different younger folks additionally warmed as much as Samy Vellu, who as MIC Youth chief emphasised that the youth wing was the premise of a robust political social gathering.

Within the late ‘70s, the Samy Vellu interdistrict soccer event was a celebration car to get Indian youths excited by politics and social work.

As a toddler, Samy Vellu was spiked with horror on the poverty that stalked his household. Virtually the whole lot went fallacious.

He was born in 1936, to rubber tapper mother and father Sanglimuthu and Anggamah within the Rengo Malay Property in Bukit Rengam, close to Kluang in Johor.

The eldest of 4 kids, he had a troublesome childhood as his father moved between estates in quest of higher wages.

Finally, the household settled down in Batu Arang, Selangor, the place his father labored as a labourer on the coal mine and later bought fish, coconuts and mutton on the market.

Samy Vellu discovered it troublesome to concentrate on his research and he left college taking up odd jobs to assist ease the household’s monetary burden.

At first, he labored at a cigar manufacturing facility, rolling cigars. He then labored as a waiter after which as a prepare dinner at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.

Subsequently, he returned to Batu Arang and labored at a tea stall the place he ready cendol and different drinks.

After his mom died in 1950, he moved to Kuala Lumpur together with his father and labored as a bus conductor with GTC Transport Firm.

Life was not straightforward within the metropolis and there have been days when he ate just one meal a day.

He then labored as an workplace boy at Russell & Co, a British organisation that ran the collieries in Batu Arang. The corporate was owned by the Russell household, the third technology of which run the Boh Estates in Cameron Highlands in the present day.

For Samy, the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel got here when he bought a job as a tracer on the architectural agency of Vethavanam & Co.

Vethavanam noticed the potential in Samy Vellu and inspired him to take up structure. He took up the problem and have become an architect.

As works minister, he would throughout discussions to construct Tamil colleges pull out a bit of paper and ruler and sketch a plan of the varsity even earlier than the proposal reached the general public works division.

In 1960, three years after his father died, he married Indrani on the age of 24. They have been blessed with two kids, son Vell Paari, who’s a senator, and daughter Mangayarkkarasi.