KUALA LUMPUR: Newly-appointed Human Resources Minister Sivakumar Varatharaju Naidu had created history in Perak, and perhaps in Malaysian political history as well.
During his tenure as Perak State Speaker, he called for an emergency state assembly sitting to table motions on the takeover of the state government.
The event was held under a rain tree on March 3, 2009, after it was believed that the assemblymen from Pakatan Rakyat had been barred from entering the Perak Darul Ridzuan buil- ding, which houses the state assembly.
Starting his political career in 1997 by joining DAP, among the posts Sivakumar has undertaken was as the political secretary to M. Kulasegaran who was the former Human Resources Minister, before contesting in the 12th General Election in 2008.
In that election, he defeated Barisan Nasional’s Lee Kim Choy by a 2,571-vote majority to win the Tronoh state seat.
In the same year, he was sworn in as Speaker of the Perak State Legislative Assembly.
Moving forward into his political profession in GE13, Sivakumar contested the Batu Gajah parliamentary seat and won in a head-to-head fight with Barisan’s Loo Thin Tuck by a 53,770-vote majority, and successfully defended it in GE14.
In the recent GE15, the DAP deputy secretary-general won the seat again by a landslide victory with a 53,836-vote majority, beating Perikatan National’s Woo Cheong Yuen and Barisan’s Teoh Chin Chong.
After 25 years in politics, Sivakumar was appointed a Cabinet minister under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s leadership.
The 51-year-old father of two obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics majoring in Public Administration at Universiti Malaya in 1994 and an Associate Degree in Insurance Agency Administra- tion from the United States’ Life Office Management Association in 2000.
Besides politics, he was professionally involved with Yayasan Perak, Ipoh as one of its board of directors in 2019 and the Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council, Kuala Lumpur’s Board of Trustee in 2018.
