Rumble for Taiping

Gerakan and PPP are fighting out for the right to contest the parliamentary seat.

TAIPING: Two Barisan Nasional component parties are at each other’s throats in their feverish quest for the Taiping parliamentary constituency.

The war of words between Gerakan and the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) has boiled over with leaders of the two political parties arguing that their respective candidate should contest the Taiping parliamentary seat.

Gerakan claims that the constituency, which sees the highest rainfall in the country, had been its traditional stronghold since 1974 and that it was only loaned to PPP in both the 2004 and 2008 general elections on the insistence of the then Prime Minister and BN chief Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

PPP chief M Kayveas won the seat at the 2004 general election with a 2,172 vote majority but lost to DAP’s Nga Kor Ming at the 2008 general election with a thumping 11,298 vote difference.

While the PPP insists that the seat should be allocated to the party under the BN banner, Gerakan has other plans.

“PPP should discuss [this issue] in the BN supreme council [instead of going to the media],” Gerakan Perak chief, Chang Ko Youn, told FMT when contacted.

“The seat allocation arrangement is already settled. We have worked hard for the past four years in Taiping and we are not going to give up this seat [to PPP].”

“We had a one-off arrangement for 2004 [for PPP to contest] and the seat was supposed to be returned to us in 2008. However, BN made a blunder and gave the seat again to PPP in 2008,” said Chang who is also party deputy president.

The BN compensated Gerakan for the loss of the Taiping seat with the Bukit Gantang parliamentary constituency in 2004 and gave the party the Grik parliamentary seat in 2008. Both the “compensated” seats were originally allocated to Umno.

Now Umno wants to contest their traditional seat of Grik in the upcoming general election and Gerakan wants Taiping back.

“Kayveas had given back this seat to us after he lost in 2008 and why does he want the seat back now?” Chang asked.

‘Bark at Koh, not PPP’

Gerakan Wanita chief Tan Lian Hoe, echoing the call, said since BN wanted winnable candidates, it was only right that Gerakan be given the seat.

“DAP did not serve the people here for the past four years and voters now want BN to represent them in the coming general election,” said Tan, who is tipped as Gerakan candidate for the seat.

Meanwhile, PPP national information chief A Chandrakumanan said in a press statement that the failure of Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon to respond to PPP’s gesture of surrendering the seat after the 2008 polls was the reason for the squabble.

“In the spirit of BN, Koh should have responded to PPP immediately when the Taiping seat was surrendered to Gerakan some four years ago. Instead, Koh decided to keep silent and ignored a good gesture [of replacing the Taiping seat with another seat],” Chandrakumanan said.

“So Chang should now bark at Koh and not at PPP,” he added.

He said Gerakan’s silence on the matter resulted in the PPP staking its claim for the seat.

“We were forced to submit Taiping as our seat in our requisition letter to BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor because of Gerakan ‘s silence and uncooperative attitude.

“As far as PPP is concerned, we have suggested returning this seat to Gerakan immediately after the 2008 general election as Gerakan had sabotaged (Kayveas’ chances of winning) in an attempt to get back the seat,” he alleged.

PPP claimed that in 2004, Gerakan had two seats as replacement for Taiping. They were the Simpang Rengam (Johor) and Bukit Gantang (Perak) parliamentary seats, and later reduced to the Grik seat in 2008.

Chandrakumanan said Chang should ask for clarification from Koh on the matter instead of aiming his guns at PPP.

“Don’t threaten PPP and awaken a sleeping lion like Kayveas… if he starts to speak, then Gerakan will have to run and hide,” he said.