SHOULD former PKR vice-president Tian Chua @ Chua Tian Chang choose to throw down the gauntlet to his once protégé P. Prabakaran at this morning’s nomination for the 15th General Election (GE15), then expect the Batu constituency to attract as many 10 candidates with a myriad of motives and intent vying for the hot seat.
With the two-term Batu MP (2008 and 2013) very likely to file his nomination papers as an independent candidate to regain the seat since he was disqualified by the Election Commission (EC) in the 2018 polls for insulting a police officer, he can be deemed as the closest contender to give PKR-Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Prabakaran a run for his money.
While it is understood that the PKR election machinery would try to pacify Tian Chua out of his plan – very much to prevent the splitting of votes more than anything else – one wonders if the latter would bury the hatchet by embracing the wisdom that “the ultimate goal is not about winning the Batu seat but to capture Putrajaya”.
The former Batu MP had previously insisted that he had his own opinions about Prabakaran’s performance and would prefer that voters make the decision themselves.
Apart from the Tian Chua-Prabakaran ‘squabble’, friction between two major Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties has threatened to boil over with the Batu MCA branch shutting down its election operations centre in an act of boycott after the seat was instead given to its coalition partner, MIC.
In a video that has gone viral, several MCA members could be seen tearing down a banner in front of their operations centre, signalling their unwillingness to work with the party’s coalition partner.
According to Sin Chew Daily, Datuk Seri Yew Teong Look who was supposed to contest the seat on behalf of MCA reportedly said the shutting down of the party’s operations centre was to express their dissatisfaction at the turn of events.
At the end of the day, BN will settle with MIC’s Datuk A. Kohilan Pillay whom pundits do not expect “to make much significant inroads into Batu”.
Apart from Tian Chua, Prabakaran and MIC, other candidates joining the fray includes Gerak Independent’s co-founder Siti (Zabedah) Kasim.
The 59-year-old human rights lawyer and activist has recently hit back at PH over the perception that she is splitting the opposition’s share of votes in Batu when it makes more sense for her to run in seats held by the likes of incumbent Ampang MP Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin and incumbent Titiwangsa MP Datuk Seri Rina Harun.
“I will stick to what I have decided. I announced it over a year ago so I didn’t just choose (the place to contest) like throwing a dart,” she told Malaysiakini. “I chose Batu because I believe it is an area where the constituents will understand where I’m coming from and the values that I carry.”
Then there is the glamour-seeking popular Malaysian social media influencer, Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharuddin a.k.a. Cleopatra, who is unperturbed about competing against big names in the Batu as an independent candidate.
The young mother of two who comes from Malay, Chinese and Dutch parentage said that contesting as an independent candidate would allow her the liberty and privilege to speak out on what she truly believes in and be realistic about what she could achieve.
Elsewhere, Perikatan Nasional (PN) will be fielding PAS’ Azhar Yahya in the constituency deemed to boast the highest number of Indian voters in the Federal capital, while Sabah-based Parti Warisan which has recently spread its wing to the peninsular will bet on Naganathan Pillai for a miracle.
With the participation of seven candidates more or less confirmed, there is always the need to allocate some room for “at least three last-minute candidates”, hence the likelihood of the Batu constituency having up to 10 MP aspirants. – Nov 5, 2022
