Indians in Pakatan: Tradable or disposable?

 

When the Chinese and Malay Pakatan elephants fight, it is the Indian grass that gets trampled.

P.M. Sivalingam 

Pakatan Rakyat leaders regard Indian candidates as tradable commodities at best and disposable merchandise at worst.

Anwar Ibrahim had been dropping names of candidates in a staggered fashion during nationwide road shows but had never mentioned a single Indian candidate. Until today that is, when he named N.Surendran as PKR candidate for Padang Serai in Kedah. 

Still in the balance are the candidatures of Kulasegaran, Xavier Jayakumar, Sivakumar, Sivarasa, Ramasamy, M. Manoharan, Charles Santiago and S. Manickavasagam. The Indian community is watching to see who will be traded and who will be disposed. 

Kulasegaran seems to be Pakatan's first fall-guy. Word had leaked out that he would be moved from his comfort zone in Ipoh Barat to Segamat. He was seen as a thorn in the side of the Ngeh cousins, and therefore disposable.

Kulasegaran had indicated that he would be willing to be sacrificial lamb for the sake of his party, the DAP. However, Anwar had other plans. He had to find a slot for PKR's Chua Jui Meng. And so he blocked Kula's move down south and named Chua as the Segamat candidate instead.

The political hopes of other Indians in Pakatan are also hanging on a thread.

It is common knowledge that the jostling for seats in the Pakatan coalition is continuing with great intensity. Since launching its manifesto on February 25, the Pakatan leadership had repeatedly said that parliamentary seat allocation had been finalised, with minor changes. But to date, the full list has not been announced.

That's because of last-minute jostling and intra-party rivalries.

The Star newspaper said in a report today, as follows:

In Terengganu, the announcement of PKR state chief Azan Ismail last Wednesday that the party would contest 11 state and three parliamentary seats was contradicted by PAS commissioner Abdul Wahid Endut...

In Penang, PAS central committee member Datuk Dr Mujahid Rawa said that a PAS candidate would contest the Sungai Acheh state seat. This was refuted by Penang PKR vice-chairman Datuk Abdul Malik Abdul Kassim...

In Perlis, PKR and PAS have locked horns over the Kangar seat, traditionally contested by PKR...

In Sabah, the Pakatan leadership is trying to hammer out a formula to share seats with its allies Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS) and Pakatan Perubahan Sabah (PPS)...

Problems can also be seen in Johor and Negeri Sembilan.

When the Chinese and Malay Pakatan elephants fight, it is the Indian grass that gets trampled.