COMMENT | PKR risks losing Sungai Buloh

COMMENT | 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.

However, 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...