Kulasegaran’s exit causes concern

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Mar 26, 2013

(Free Malaysia Today) – Perak DAP members are pinning for the return of their unsung hero Kulasegaran to once again be their vocal voice but the party veteran might not return.

The departure of DAP veteran leader M Kulasegaran from Perak to Johor has cast doubts on the bargaining and political clout of the 20% Indian members in the state party.

Some Indian party leaders have expressed fear that their political voice may not be heard in DAP as their “Indian Godfather” moves his base to Johor.

Kulasegaran was instrumental in ensuring that the voice of Indian members was heard in the silver state after the 2008 political tsunami.

According to a DAP source, it was Kulasegaran who brought in Teluk Intan MP M Manogaran, Sungkai assemblyperson A Sivanesan, Tronoh and Buntong lawmakers V Sivakumar and A Sivasubramaniam respectively, into the Perak political arena.

The source said Kulasegaran, who is close to party superemo Lim Kit Siang, ensured that an executive post be given to Sivanesan and that the state speaker post goes to Sivakumar by the newly minted Pakatan Perak state government in 2008.

Kulasegaran also advocated that the post of Ipoh City mayor should be given to an Indian but it failed to materialise.

The Ipoh Barat MP also ensured that Indian representation in the DAP silver state had at least a minimum of two parliamentarians and four state lawmakers.

One party leader even opined that the Ipoh Barat MP might come back to Perak to defend his seat as Kulasegaran only wanted to challenge Segamat incumbent cum MIC deputy chief Dr S Subramaniam in Johor.

However, with the PKR Gelang Patah parliamentary seat given to Kit Siang and in the exchange the DAP Segamat seat was instead given to Johor PKR chief Chua Jui Meng.

Perak DAP members are pinning for the return of their unsung hero Kulasegaran to once again be their vocal voice but the party veteran might not return as the bad political experience of Perak still remains in his mind.

Team A vs Team B

It was smooth sailing between Kulasegaran and party secretary Nga Kor Ming before the 2008 general election as they were united in their political standing.

But after the win of the silver state, cracks appeared in the friendship which saw DAP being divided into two camps with Nga and Ngeh Koo Ham in Team A and Kulasegaran in Team B.

What was disheartening to Kulasegaran was that two of the three Sivas (Sivanesan, Siva Kumar and Sivasubramaniam) that he had groomed had betrayed him and crossed over to Team A.