{"id":1387,"date":"2008-02-22T22:32:37","date_gmt":"2008-02-22T14:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/02\/22\/more-indian-candidates-from-dap-thanks-to-rayer\/"},"modified":"2008-02-23T11:56:02","modified_gmt":"2008-02-23T03:56:02","slug":"more-indian-candidates-from-dap-thanks-to-rayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/02\/22\/more-indian-candidates-from-dap-thanks-to-rayer\/","title":{"rendered":"more Indian candidates from DAP thanks to Rayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looks like DAP still wary of how much Indian community support they can get, plus the backlash from other communities if too many Indians are nominated. Party loyalists and grassroots may not like it if the candidates are not from their “area” or “type” of people. But looking at the way things are going, I think DAP and PKR are putting more Indian candidates compared to Gerakan<\/a> (none as of today!).<\/p>\n

Rayer’s action can be either seen as brave or foolish. Brave enough to argue his stand and willing to be independent candidate. Foolish if he thinks can hold party to ransom. In the end, candidate must be chosen based on ability, track record, integrity, AND party’s strategy. Which is easier said than done. One may need to be iron-fisted like SV, have many seats like UMNO, or have a very small party \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Indians to contest in 3 state and 3 parliment seats. P.Ramasamy may contest both parliment and state. So total candidates either 5 or 6.]<\/p>\n

An outburst that could result in more seats<\/p>\n

http:\/\/malaysiakini.com\/news\/78461
\nAthi Veeranggan | Feb 22, 08 7:26pm
\nAn emotional outburst by an upcoming state DAP leader RS Nettaji Rayer this morning seems to have rewarded the Indian assemblage in the party with more seats for the coming general election. The party is now expected to line up three more Indian candidates to contest in three state seats. This is on top of the confirmed parliamentary seat allocation for Karpal Singh and P Ramasamy, who is also now promised a state seat.<\/p>\n

Apart from its national chairman and battle hardened Karpal and the party international bureau secretary Ramasamy, prominent young lawyers Rayer, Jagdeep Singh Deo and A Thanasekharan are also expected to contest three state seats. Debutant Rayer, 37, – who told journalists in the morning that he would contest in the Prai state seat as an independent candidate only to retract it later in the afternoon – is expected to be fielded in Seri Delima under Bukit Gelugor. Karpal’s son Jagdeep Singh Deo is likely to try his luck in Datuk Keramat, won by Gerakan’s Ong Thean Lye by 5,055-vote margin over DAP’s Koid Teng Guan in 2004. Thanasekharan is virtually certain to challenge MIC state deputy chairman PK Subbaiyah in Bagan Dalam state seat. Subbaiyah, who was a state executive councillor in the last assembly term, won the seat by 1,967-vote majority in a three-cornered fight in 2004.<\/p>\n

Ramasamy’s insurance seat<\/p>\n

Political scientist Professor Ramasamy, 58, who faces a tough battle against Gerakan president and out-going Penang Chief Minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon in the Batu Kawan parliamentary constituency, is also likely to go for a double header by contesting in Prai state seat, which comes under Batu Kawan, against MIC’s L Krishnan. Penang DAP believes the party has a fighting chance to capture Batu Kawan (Parliament), Prai (Parliament) and Bagan Dalam (state) due to the substantial presence of Indian votes presently inspired by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) movement. Karpal will lead the charge by contesting in Bukit Gelugor federal seat that he won by 1,261-vote majority against MCA’s Lim Boo Chang in 2004. The famous lawyer is expected to face MCA’s Koay Har Huah this time.<\/p>\n

It’s learnt that the party Indian supporters have lobbied for Ramasamy to be given Prai state seat as an `insurance’ when Koh announced his intention to contest in Batu Kawan. “Since we have invited Ramasamy to contest here, we shall protect his political interests. The Penang Indian community needs a vibrant, dynamic and down-to-earth elected representative. We cannot afford to sacrifice him,” a top party leader told Malaysiakini.<\/p>\n

An emotional charge<\/p>\n

An entire chain of event was sparked today as a result of Rayer’s emotional press conference this morning, expressing his anger over the manner the party had sidelined Indian candidates to contest. Rayer stated that he would stand as an independent candidate to protest the marginalisation of Indians in the DAP.<\/p>\n

However some five hours later, he held another press conference, in the presence of Karpal and state chairman Chow Kon Yeow, apologising over his outburst in the morning. “I would like to extend my unconditional apology to the party leadership for my outburst. I did not mean to put DAP in the negative light,” said Rayer. “I am retracting my statement since all outstanding issues had been resolved due to timely intervention by Karpal, who I regard as my godfather and mentor,” he added. The \u2018timely intervention’, sources said, indicated the behind-the-door scenes which resulted in the party giving in to the Indian members’ demands by allocating them the four state seats.<\/p>\n

Second outburst<\/p>\n

At the press conference, Karpal suggested that Rayer may have over-reacted at the spur of the moment. “It was an emotional outburst of a young man who is ready and raring to take on the BN. Indians have never been marginalised in the party,” he told journalists.<\/p>\n

Rayer’s outburst is the second time a local DAP leader has gone to the press over his disagreement with party decisions. DAP state treasurer and Sungai Puyu state assembly person Phee Boon Poh publicly protested the party’s proposal to nominate Karpal in the Bagan federal seat. He subsequently has apologised to the party. “Now that we had resolved all problems amicably, including Fong Po Kuan saga in Batu Gajah, we can face BN with confidence and in full force,” said Karpal.<\/p>\n

DAP’s Rayer gets a seat – after \u2018emotional outburst’<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n

PENANG: In a sudden turn of events, state DAP legal adviser R.S.N. Rayer (pic) retracted his statement that he would contest as an independent candidate and apologised to the party for his “emotional outburst”.<\/p>\n

At 10am yesterday, Rayer, 36, told a press conference at his house that he planned to contest as an independent in Prai because he felt Indian candidates in the party had been marginalised.<\/p>\n

He said it was “unacceptable” for Chong Eng to contest in Prai when the seat had been traditionally contested by the party’s Indian candidates.<\/p>\n

By afternoon, Rayer had changed his tune. He told another press conference, this time at the state DAP headquarters, that his earlier decision was made in a “moment of emotion”.<\/p>\n

“After the intervention by Karpal Singh (national DAP chairman), I wish to state that the issue has been resolved. I wish to apologise to the party,” he read from his two-paragraph statement. It is learnt that Rayer will now be contesting the Seri Delima state seat.<\/p>\n

Karpal Singh, who was present at the press conference, denied that Indians in the party had been marginalised.\u00a0 He also said he decided to intervene and advise Rayer after getting a call from party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.<\/p>\n

Karpal Singh said the party would be fielding four Indian candidates for state seats – two on the mainland (Prai and Bagan Dalam) and two on the island, besides the two candidates for the parliamentary constituencies of Bukit Gelugor and Batu Kawan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looks like DAP still wary of how much Indian community support they can get, plus the backlash from other communities if too many Indians are nominated. Party loyalists and grassroots may not like it if the candidates are not from their “area” or “type” of people. But looking at the way things are going, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[119,130],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-dap","tag-election-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}