Leader of Malaysian Indian Congress resigns after 31 years

• The leader of Malaysia's largest ethnic Indian party resigned Monday after more than three decades at the helm amid criticism from members of his party and the public.
• Calls for S. Samy Vellu, 74, to quit had increased since his Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) party's poor performance in the 2008 general elections.
• His critics charged that Samy, as he is widely known, has done little to protect the ethnic Indian community's rights in mainly Muslim Malaysia since he took the reins in 1979.
• After the 2008 elections, the MIC saw its number of seats in the 222-member parliament fall from nine to four, making it harder for the party to fulfill its role as defender of Malaysia's Indians, who account for around seven percent of the total population.
• MIC is a member of the National Front coalition, which has ruled the country since its independence in 1957 and includes representatives from the country's different ethnic groups