Palani paid RM20 for my vote, says orang asli voter

The Cameron Highlands voter says he is still owed RM80 in balance and that the MIC president also threatened to withdraw all free services for the community if they voted the opposition.

SUBANG JAYA: An orang asli voter from Cameron Highlands today accused the Barisan Nasional candidate for the parliamentary constituency of dwelling in money politics and threats in order to win the seat.

Testifying at Bersih’s People’s Tribunal on the alleged cheatings that took place during the May general election, voter Norman Kong said MIC president G Palanivel had allegedly threatened an indigenous community in Jelai that he would end all free hospital services and education programmes if the community voted for the opposition.

Norman also claimed that he was paid RM20 by Palanivel as an advance money for him to vote for the BN during the polling day.

He added that he was promised another RM80 if he managed to bring more people from his community to vote for the BN.

Norman who traveled eight hours to testify in the tribunal this afternoon also mentioned that BN had made various kinds of promises during the campaign period.

“Palanivel came to my village in a helicopter. He promised us many things, from road to houses. He told us not to vote for anyone else other than BN.

“He then said that he would end the free medical treatment and schools if we voted for the opposition, and that we will have to pay for them.

“Palanivel gave me RM20 to vote for BN and promised another RM80 if I brought more people to vote for BN. But I never received the RM80 that was promised,” he said.

“I had voted in three elections and every time there is an election they (BN) promised us better roads and new houses. But until today we never got get what was promised to us. Janji tidak ditepati,” he said.

Norman also testified that the orang asli village heads in the constituency were brainwashed by the Orang Asli Department to vote only for BN.

“The was a programme in Kuantan organised by the department where several orang asli village heads were invited to join the programme. They were brainwashed by the facilitator during the whole program,” he claimed.

“They were told to only vote for BN and not to vote for the oppostion. Later when they returned to their respective kampungs, they were asked to teach their people to follow what they were told during the programme,” he said.

In the GE, Palanivel won Cameron Highlands with a slim 462-vote majority in a five-cornered fight. His closest rival was DAP’s M Manogaran who polled in 10,044 votes compared to Palanivel’s 10,506.

Manogaran recently lost his election petition to challenge the Cameron Highlands results.

The tribunal continues tomorrow.