Hard for MIC to retain Cameron Highlands: Party insider

PETALING JAYA: MIC will face hard task in retaining Cameron Highlands due to perceive corruption during the GE 14, said a party insider.

He said the party had neglected the seat during the in-fighting involving former party president Datuk G. Palanivel.

“The seat was given to MIC because it was seen as a safe seat but the results of GE14 has shown that there are no longer any safe seats for Barisan Nasional (BN),“ said the party insider.

“The only good thing going for the party is that there is still some strong support for BN in Pahang.”

He said BN has strong support from Malay and Orang Asli voters whilst the GE 14 showed that DAP had garnered a lot of support from Chinese and Indian voters.

The party insider said MIC must be very careful as to how it carries out its campaign this time as eyes will be on it due the party allegedly being involved in corrupt practices during the GE14.

On June 4 last year, DAP candidate M. Manogaran filed a petition seeking a declaration that the outcome of the 14th General Election on May 9 for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat held by MIC vice president Datuk C. Sivarraajh was null and void for flouting the General Elections Act 1954.

The Election Commission (EC) on Dec 28 confirmed that Sivarraajh, who was MIC vice-president, was not qualified to contest and vote in the by-election.

At the GE14, Sivarraajh won the Cameron Highlands Parliamentary seat by garnering 10,307 votes beating Manogaran of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) with 9,710 votes; Wan Mahadir Wan Mahmud of PAS (3,587 votes); Mohd Tahir Kassim of Berjasa (81 votes) and B. Suresh Kumar of Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) (680 votes).

The party insider said although MIC has been involved in general elections but its machinery has hardly been tested during by-election and the last one it was involved in was the 2010 in Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election.

He said previously BN held the upper hand but going into this parliamentary by-election MIC must be prepared to slug it out as the party is no longer in government.

He said the MIC leaders and members must realise that they will face a tough fight to retain the seat.