Cameron Highlands poser for MIC

PETALING JAYA: MIC has been attempting to make a return to Cameron Highlands after ignoring the seat for the past several years following the sacking of its former president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel.
The party had declared the seat as independent but is now attempting to claim the seat as its traditional seat.
According to a Barisan Nasional (BN) source, this attempt has been causing a lot of problems for the coalition due to the fact that MyPPP president Tan Sri M.Kayveas had been working hard for the last four years to win over the support of the Cameron Highlands voters.
He said Palanivel did not get the full support of the Indian votes in the parliamentary seat and only won it by a very slim majority.
"Palanivel obtained 10,506 votes in a four-cornered fight with Manogaran Marimuthu (DAP) who obtained 10,044 votes, Mohd Shokri Mahmood (Berjasa) 912 and two independents candidates who got a total of 409 votes.
Palanivel won the seat with a majority of 462 votes only.
"Based on this result, questions do arise as to how will MIC win the seat since they have ignored it. They only opened a service centre a few days ago. The former centre run by Palanivel had been closed ever since he was sacked from the party," the source said.
He pointed out that current party president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam had just asked the Cameron Highlands division to list out everything the party has done for the people there.
"How do you accept to win the support of the voters when the party itself does not know what it has done for the people? The voters should be able to bear witness themselves to the party's work in the area," the source said, adding Kayveas is a very well known figure in the area and he is a local which makes it easier for him to win the support of the voters.
He added that on the other hand MIC is planning to parachute in a candidate into the constituency which in itself is a handicap.
"For the last six months or so the party's Youth chief Datuk C. Sivarraajh has been in Cameron Highlands to shore up support for the party as well as attempt to become the candidate," he said.
He added that there are rumours that certain senior party leaders are looking for a safe seat and they have targetted Cameron Highlands as one such seat.
The source said all the work done by Sivarraajh would have been vain and this will put off the voters from supporting a MIC candidate.
He said if MIC had the support of the Indian voters in the constituency they should have won the seat with a handsome majority.
He said it is very unlikely that the Cameron Highlands voters will support an unknown candidate.
The source pointed out that Kayveas who has been working hard there and whose family owns a farm there knows the problems faced by the people and will be the best candidate for the constituency.
He said at the end of the day the choice of candidate lies with BN president Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, who must decide who will be the best candidate for a seat that was won by MIC with a very slim majority despite fielding its former president.