The Sungai Siput conundrum

Light blue wave: Both Dr Jeyakumar and his wife R. Rani who contested in the Buntong state under PSM lost to Pakatan Harapan candidates in GE14.

IN 2008, Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj was one of the giant-killing success stories. Representing the small Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), he managed to topple Datuk Seri Samy Vellu in Sungai Siput, a seat that had only been held by Samy Vellu and Tun Sambanthan since the country’s independence.

However, during the historic 14th General Election that toppled the hitherto omnipotent Barisan National, Dr Jeyakumar became one of the casualties, garnering less than four percent of the votes and losing his deposit as voters chose the relatively unknown Kesavan Subra­man­iam of Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Despite being voted out of the constituency he held for two terms, Dr Jeyakumar does not hold anything against the voters of Sungai Siput.

Many begged him to contest under the PKR logo, he says, but he could not turn his back on his party.

“It’s not that they didn’t appreciate our work, but this election was about changing the government and we were not in Pakatan Harapan. It was not a rejection of the kind of MP I was.

“Najib or Dr Mahathir, that’s the choice that a lot of Malaysians were voting for. I don’t take it personally,” he tells Sunday Star.

Dr Jeyakumar received 1,505 votes while Pakatan candidate, Kesavan, who won the seat, received 20,817 votes.

In the previous two elections in 2008 and 2013, Dr Jeyakumar had used the PKR logo, but this year he used the PSM flag after the party could not reach an agreement with Pakatan.

It has been argued that Dr Jeya­kumar would have made a good minister had he contested as a Pakatan Harapan candidate, but to him it was a blessing in disguise.

He says that if he was part of the Cabinet – the Health Minister for example – his ideas would be thrown out pretty fast.

He cites the example of PSM wanting to freeze private hospital expansion as about 10% of senior specialists are serving with the government.

If the private service expanded further, he says, it would be at the expense of the government sector.

“We are saying please don’t let them expand. What is there, let it be. I think a thing like that would not go well with this Cabinet.

“Either I will have to water down my principles or leave the Cabinet,” he says, stressing that PSM has a big role to play in the future of Malaysia by putting forward a different narrative.

He remains proud of the work he did in a unique part of the country.

“Sungai Siput is a very interesting constituency. It’s got urban areas, factory workers and estate workers. It’s got rubber smallholders and orang asli. Apart from fishermen, it has almost all the communities in Malaysia.

“There is also a fair number of poor people there. It gives you a good chance to look at all issues – urban housing, poverty among small holders and semi-rural estate workers.

“It is a good constituency for a socialist to stand in and see how they address these kind of issues. I learned quite a bit by being there.”

Dr Jeyakumar admits that there is less pressure now as he does not have to worry about constituency work, which was very demanding. Now he has the time to work on other things like studies to address rural poverty in the kampung.