MP denies rebel group accusation of poor service

Sungai Siput MP Kesavan Subramaniam has denied claims that more than 5,000 PKR (People’s Justice Party) and DAP (Democratic Action Party) members are dissatisfied with him and are set to throw their support behind MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) president Vigneswaran Sanasee at the next general election.

A group claiming to represent more than 5,000 “hardcore” young Indian supporters of Pakatan Harapan in Sungai Siput had accused Kesavan of poor service in the constituency since he was elected in 2018.

They alleged that he had closed his parliamentary service center, leaving his constituents unable to seek assistance.

However, Kesavan said: “This is not true. I live in Sungai Siput. My service center is open, and I am there every day without fail”. He added: “Elections are around the corner, so some people are doing this kind of things for their own personal benefit.”

The dissident group claimed they had lost faith in Pakatan Harapan and had decided to give full support to Vigneswaran to be the next MP for Sungai Siput. The group said he had been generous in helping the community regardless of their political affiliation.

However, Kesavan said that one of the statement’s co-authors, who claimed to be a PKR branch chief, had been thrown out of the party for disciplinary reasons in January.

He questioned their claim of representing 5,000 people. “There must be proof. Who are these members? Send their names and IC numbers to the party,” he said.

When asked for proof that the member in question was dismissed from the party, Kesavan sent a show cause letter from PKR to the member on Jan 12, in which the member was charged with insulting PKR and the party president on Facebook in October. He said the member failed to respond to the letter.

The PKR member, Umaparan, said he never received the show cause letter and only found out that his membership was terminated when he wanted to challenge Kesavan for the Sungai Siput PKR division chief post.

Umaparan said he discovered this when he wanted to fill up the forms to contest for the post, claiming that this was a ploy to prevent him from challenging Kesavan for the party position. An official complaint lodged online to PKR’s election committee went ignored, he claimed.

Because of this experience, he said he was no longer interested in being part of PKR, adding that the party did not encourage “healthy competition”.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES