Pkr Risks Losing Sungai Buloh

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Among all its decisions for candidates for GE15, the choice by PKR of its deputy information chief R Ramanan as a replacement for R Sivarasa for the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat surely ranks as the worst and one which is impossible to comprehend.
Who is Ramanan Ramakrishnan, and in what way is he a superior candidate to long-serving Sivarasa Rasiah, a well-known human rights lawyer and activist, and a three-term MP who has had a distinguished political career? Let’s see.
PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli announced yesterday that PKR should review its list of candidates given that Umno has announced that former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin will contest the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat. Umno deputy president Mohamad Hassan or Tok Mat will contest Khairy’s former seat of Rembau in Negeri Sembilan.
But even before Khairy’s entry into the Sungai Buloh constituency, it was already obvious that Ramanan was a rather weak candidate for Sungai Buloh and did not match up to dropped candidate Sivarasa’s stature and standing.
BN candidate for Sungai Buloh Khairy JamaluddinHowever, in a report later yesterday, Anwar appeared to disagree with Rafizi, brushing off the need for his party, PKR, and Pakatan Harapan to revise its candidate list after BN and Perikatan Nasional unveiled their candidates the previous day.
If indeed Anwar and PKR do not revise the list, it would be a major mistake because it would result in an inferior candidate being chosen for Sungai Buloh and a near-free ride for Umno’s Khairy to win there.
One of the main things against Ramanan was that he was not only at one time the treasurer-general of MIC but was involved in a very public case in January 2014 where he was ordered to return RM5.5 million to then prominent psychiatrist Dr M Mahadevan.
As a result of the court case, Ramanan announced he was stepping down as MIC treasurer-general after having been appointed to the post just a month before that.
Ramanan was quoted as having said: "In view of the High Court decision and in the interest of MIC and my president Datuk Seri G Palanivel who I love very much, I am stepping down as the treasurer-general of MIC until I clear my name in court. I do not want this High Court decision to be exploited by anyone. It has been exploited enough.”
“...It is not an issue of money. I am appealing the case but I will pay the money," he said.
But barely a year later in January 2015, he was alleging that his beloved Palanivel wanted MIC shut down as it faced deregistration because nothing was done to rectify issues with polls at several branches within 30 days of the Registrar of Societies’ instructions to do so then.
Sullied background
I could not find any records of the outcome of his appeal in the RM5.5 million award reported and there was little else available on him except for what appears to be his personal website.
It describes him thus: “Ramanan is an active dedicated member of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and brings with him years of experiences and competencies related to governmental, political, social welfare, socioeconomic, ecological and environmental initiatives as can be seen in his career briefings.”
Further, according to a Malaysiakini report quoting Bernama, Judicial Commissioner Lee Heng Cheong, in his decision in the RM5.5 million case, said he agreed with Dr Mahadevan’s counsel that Ramanan had fraudulently misrepresented himself to the plaintiff, resulting in him transferring the money into the defendant’s personal account on May 19, 2010.
Ramanan had allegedly misrepresented Mahadevan, and said he could retrieve a RM26 million debt from the Defence Ministry by showing a letter from the Defence Ministry that was proven in court to be a forged letter guaranteeing payment, the report added.
These are rather serious allegations to be made on the face of which Ramanan should be disqualified as a candidate for Sungai Buloh. All of this is bound to be dug up again and put up as material against Ramanan in the run-up to elections on Nov 19, plenty of time for a candidate to be tarred and feathered beyond redemption.
Against a candidate like Khairy, Ramanan will have no chance at all given his sullied background, relative lightweight and his lack of exposure outside a small circle within PKR - in fact, Khairy will get a free ride into one of the more easily winnable seats for PKR in the last elections.
Then, Malays constituted some 68 percent of the electorate, Chinese 20 percent, and Indians 10 percent - Sivarasa won it in 2018 with some 56 percent of votes cast against PAS and BN candidates, according to Undi.info.
The Sungai Buloh seat was carved out of Kuala Selangor and Subang. Sivarasa had been the previous MP of the old Subang constituency, elected in 2008 and 2013, making him a three-term MP. He was at one time a vice-president of PKR.
He graduated with a first-class degree in genetics from Universiti Malaya, and subsequently won a Rhodes Scholarship to study law at Oxford.
If PKR cannot find anyone better than him to stand in Sungai Buloh, they should simply retain him. He has had an exemplary career in politics, rising to the position of deputy minister in Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s cabinet, and is very experienced and competent.
Three-term MP R SivarasaHis only “crime” so to speak was to be associated with Mohamed Azmin Ali, one of the three traitors most responsible for the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government in 2020. But to his credit, he remained true to PKR, Harapan and their principles and aspirations and did not cross over.
Surely his reward for loyalty to the party and his principles cannot be to lose his seat, especially to someone who is so much inferior to him. Can’t Anwar and PKR see that? And if they don’t, just how much will it cost?
It’s late in the day but not too late to put matters right. - Mkini
P GUNASEGARAM, a former editor at online and print news publications, and head of equity research, is an independent writer and analyst.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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