THREE-TERM Sungai Buloh MP Sivarasa Rasiah confirms that he has to stay out of defending his Parliamentary seat because of a health-related matter after PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim raised concerns over how he would manage his campaign following the ailing state of his voice.
“Over the last three months, I have been having problems with my vocal cords and am currently using a speech amplifier to assist and protect my current voice,” he revealed in a statement.
“DSAI (Anwar) had raised with me his concerns about this and whether I could manage the campaign. I had a differing view and explained how I would manage the campaign differently taking into account the state of my voice.”
The head of PKR’s legal bureau said he was compelled to clarify by a number of people as to why he was not the candidate for Sungai Buloh after the recent public statements issued by Anwar and the party’s and deputy president Rafizi Ramli.
“Right up to last Friday morning (Oct 28) my name remained as the candidate for Sungai Buloh. About 5 pm on that day, I received a text message from Anwar saying that after further discussion, he had decided that I would not be the candidate,” the lawyer-cum-human rights activist noted.
“DSAI had tried to call shortly before the text, but I could not take the call then.
Whatever the case is, Sivarasa said he has fully accepted the decision by Anwar as the PKR head. “He has the right to make the final decision taking into account his perceived view of my health situation and any other factors which he considers relevant,” he explained.
Recall that Rafizi yesterday (Nov 3) contended that he was engaged in a complex and lengthy discussion with Anwar to determine the most suitable candidate for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the Sungai Buloh Parliamentary constituency with Anwar who has the last say preferring to drop Sivarasa
In fact, Utusan Malaysia has cited the Opposition leader as saying that allowing a frail looking Sivarasa to campaign could have dampened Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) chances in GE15.
“The fact that (former health minister and Rembau MP) Khairy Jamaluddin would be the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate has been known to us for some days and was in fact brought to my attention by Anwar,” Sivarasa further clarified.
“I ask that this polemic about my not being a candidate to stop. It is more important to focus on the campaign for PH to win Putrajaya.”
Even if PKR has to drop Sivarasa, the court of public opinion dictates that the party should have considered a better choice of candidate than former MIC treasurer-general Datuk Ramanan Ramakrishnan who carries with him “some political baggage”.
“Among all its decisions for candidates for GE15, the choice by PKR of its deputy information chief R. Ramanan as a replacement for R. Sivarasa for the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat surely ranks as the worst and one which is impossible to comprehend,” lambasted veteran journalist P Gunasegaram in a Malaysiakini commentary.
“One of the main things against Ramanan was that he was not only at one time the treasurer-general of MIC but was involved in a very public case in January 2014 where he was ordered to return RM5.5 mil to then prominent psychiatrist Dr M. Mahadevan.”
Judging from the poor choice, one truly wonders if Anwar or the PKR is truly short of capable candidates to field as replacement for Sivarasa. Certainly, former Batu MP Tian Chua @ Chua Tian Chang or even Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah will not be regarded by the Sungai Buloh electorate as ‘parachute candidates’, right? – Nov 4, 2022
