Uthaya wants to be a PAS candidate

HRP secretary-general P Uthayakumar says he is willing to stand as a PAS candidate in the general election.

PETALING JAYA: Human Rights Party Malaysia leader P Uthayakumar wants to contest in the Kota Raja parliament seat under the PAS banner but all his attempts to meet PAS leaders so far have been futile.

Uthayakumar, who is HRP’s pro-tem secretary-general, is basing his hope on a meeting with PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang early last year.

“Early last year, we met Abdul Hadi Awang at the PAS headquarters with six other MPs in attendance.

“They said that they will field non-Muslims to stand as PAS candidates in the general election. As such, I am prepared to stand as a PAS candidate,” said Uthayakumar.

According to Uthayakumar, unless he is told to back out, he would still want to contest under PAS.

“If they don’t want me to contest under their ticket, they have to explain to me why I don’t deserve to stand as their candidate,” he said.

He however admitted that all attempts to meet with PAS representatives have been futile.

“We want to meet up but whether it is about meeting to ask for seats or to talk about the Indian poor, we have met a stone wall.

“If they do not want to meet up then I would be forced to contest as an independent,” he said.

Relying on Indian voters

When asked as to why he wanted to contest in Kota Raja, he said the decision went hand in hand with his party’s focus on Indian issues.

“The Kota Raja constituency has the highest number of Indian voters, at 29%.

“The constituency is very unique as the Indian community is the majority in the area and there are no army camps and orang asli voters, and we know that the army and orang asli folk are the bulk voters for the BN.

“Therefore, I believe that all these factors will work in my favour,” he said.

He also confirmed that groundwork has been done, saying: “We have been actively involved in groundwork since February and we have opened our operation room in Sri Andalas on March 2.

“Other than the Indian voters, we also hope to convince the Chinese voters. As for the Malay votes, I think it’s going to be split in half.

“Regardless, we are going to go ahead, and I will be contesting in the Kota Raja constituency in the general election,” Uthayakumar reiterated.

Kota Raja is held by PAS’s Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud who won the seat from MIC in 2008. She is slated to defend the seat in the coming general election.

Previously she told FMT that Uthayakumar’s decision to contest in Kota Raja would split the Indian votes in favour of Barisan Nasional.

As for BN, their candidate for the seat is likely to be SA Vigneswaran from MIC who lost to Siti Mariah in 2008 by a majority of 20,751 votes.