PSM: There’s more to elections than just PH and BN
Suresh said he found the idea that people either had to choose between Pakatan Harapan (PH) or Barisan Nasional (BN) not only offensive to voters but personally irritating.
“This mentality degrades the people’s aspiration to have a third or fourth choice at the polls,” he told FMT.
Suresh was responding to a call from DAP’s M Manogaran for him to help PH defeat BN in the parliamentary constituency, where Manogaran lost to then MIC president G Palanivel in the last general election in May 2013.
“Suresh is very aware of the fact that in the bigger scheme of things, it will come down to BN or Pakatan Harapan. He must make a decision as to who he will end up helping,” Manogaran had told FMT recently.
Manogaran had said that the reason PSM could not hope to achieve much alone was because it could not win the support of the Malays and Chinese.
Suresh acknowledged that the bulk of the Chinese votes would be with DAP but said it was fairly easy for PSM to balance that out with the Orang Asli and Indian votes.
“Even DAP’s win in Pos Titom was mainly contributed by Mat Nor Ayat and his team’s campaign in GE13, in the absence of a candidate from PSM at the time.
“In GE14, Mat Nor Ayat will be contesting on a PSM ticket and he will definitely campaign for his candidacy and mine, not DAP.”
In the last election, 160 voters cast their ballots in Pos Titom. DAP won 87 votes and BN won 24.
Suresh claimed that even the Chinese support for DAP had dwindled since the last election.
“Chinese voters accounted for 31% of DAP’s support and that has waned.
“DAP’s Tanah Rata assemblyman Leong Ngah Ngah has had a poor presence especially in terms of handling land matters with many issues still unresolved such as land ownership for smallholders and more than 500 non-renewed temporary occupational licenses (TOLs) in Ringlet and Bertam among other things.
“Manogaran himself has somewhat disappeared after GE14 even though he only lost by only 462 votes.”
Opposition votes split
G Palanivel, who is now an independent, won the seat in the 2013 general election in a five-way contest, getting 10,506 votes against Manogaran’s 10,044 votes.
The 912 votes obtained by Berjasa’s candidate, as well as 409 votes split between two independent candidates showed that a straight fight would have seen BN lose the seat in 2013.
Suresh said he had no personal issues with Manogaran and agreed that a united opposition front would have a better chance at defeating BN.
However, Suresh claimed Manogaran was nowhere near in terms of the amount of work he’s done for the people of Cameron Highlands.
“PSM had been in Cameron Highlands for 14 years compared with him. Manogaran’s time in Cameron Highlands is more election-oriented work.”
Meanwhile, Suresh said Manogaran’s example of winning the polling district of Kg Keledek was not representative of the overall Malay sentiment.
“There are more than 10,000 Malay voters in Cameron Highlands and though the ‘ubah’ sentiment may have been strong in GE13, it is not as strong anymore.
“What work has Manogaran done in the Malay stronghold of Jelai? At least PSM has been campaigning there and we have a six-point manifesto for Jelai voters.”
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