PSM: No three-cornered fights,please (FMT)

PSM: No three-cornered fights,please

K Pragalath | April 11, 2013

PSM would be meeting PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim by this Sunday to settle the issue over the seats that it is contesting in Selangor.

PETALING JAYA: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) wants PKR to come to its senses and avoid any three-cornered fights.
PSM maintains that if this happens, the only winner will be Barisan Nasional.
The “troublesome” seats are Kota Damansara and Semenyih state seats in Selangor and Jelapang state seat and Sungai Siput parliamentary seat in Perak.
Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is scheduled to meet PSM on Sunday . The PKR list of candidates for Selangor will be announced on Sunday.
Kota Damansara seat is held by PSM chairman Nasir Hashim. PSM secretary-general, S Arutchelvan, wants to contest in Semenyih.
“We are supposed to meet Anwar by this Sunday to resolve this issue. We hope to come to some sort of compromise to avoid a three-cornered fight,” said Arutchelvan.
On Sunday night, Anwar would be announcing PKR’s candidates list for Selangor in an event that would take place in Hulu Klang.
The issue over the two seats was raised because PKR wants to field its candidates in both the seats.
Last week, Arutchelvan confirmed that he would be contesting in Semenyih amidst attempts by a Serdang PKR leader Hamidi Hasan to go for the semi-urban seat located in Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency.
Selangor PKR wants to field its own candidate in the two seats because PSM had contested under PKR’s banner in the last election held in 2008.
“In the last election, they [PSM] contested under PKR’s ticket, and they used our banner. However,I don’t have the authority to make the decision or announcement.
“I will let Anwar make the announcement this Sunday,” said Batu Caves state assemblyman Amirudin Shari of PKR at the party headquarters today.
Arutchelvan also said that in the event a three-cornered battle is unavoidable, the two states seats and Sungai Siput parliamentary seat in Perak would fall to BN.
“Why allow BN to take over the seat when PSM is Pakatan-friendly? Our common goal is to take over federal government,” he said and confirmed that PSM would back Pakatan in all the state and parliamentary seats in the event of a three-cornered fight.
Best candidate

PSM is contesting a total of four seats in the GE13. Apart from the three, the party is also fielding its deputy chairman M Sarasvathy for the Jelapang state seat in Perak.
During GE12 held in 2008, PSM won the Kota Damansara and Sungai Siput seat respectively.
Arutchelvan also expressed confidence that Jelapang would remain in the hands of Pakatan even if there was a three-cornered fight involving DAP, MCA and PSM.
In 2008, Hee Yit Foong of DAP polled 12,219 votes against MCA’s Loh Koi Pin and Sarasvathy. Loh polled 5512 votes and Sarasvathy polled 1275 votes.
Hee later declared herself BN friendly independent in 2009 and that led to the fall of the Pakatan led state government in Perak.
The PSM leader added that his party is engaging certain NGOs to evaluate the best candidate for Jelapang. Some of the NGOs identified are Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (SABM) and Aliran.
Arutchelvan, who is also Kajang municipal councillor, also said that it would be best if the DAP does not field a candidate in Sungai Siput.
He added that the local PKR divisions also does not have an issue with PSM there.
Sungai Siput is currently represented by PSM’s central committee member, Dr D Michael Jeyakumar.
In 2004, DAP’s P Samugam Ponmugam polled 2,864 against Jeyakumar’s 8562 votes. The then MIC president, S Samy Vellu, was victorious when he got 18,797 votes with a majority of 10,235 votes.
In 2008, Jeyakumar became the giant killer by defeating Samy Vellu with a majority of 1,821 votes. Jeyakumar polled 16,458 votes to Samy’s 14,637 votes. Independent Nor Rizan Oon lost his deposit with 864 votes.
Deputy Minister in Prime Minister’s Department and MIC vice-president SK Devamany would be attempting to wrest Sungai Siput in GE13 which would take place on May 5.