Kedah Gerakan wants MIC candidate

PETALING JAYA, 24 Feb 2009: Kedah Gerakan Youth wants the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Bukit Selambau by-election to be an Indian Malaysian from MIC.

Its youth chief Tan Keng Liang said BN had to honour the agreement made in the 2008 general election.

“Any by-election should follow the agreement made during the last general election. Furthermore, an Indian candidate from MIC can represent all Malaysians in Bukit Selambau,” Tan said in a statement today.

He was responding to Jerlun Member of Parliament Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir’s call for Umno to field a candidate in the 7 April by-election for the state seat in Kedah.

Mukhriz had suggested that an Umno candidate be fielded instead because the seat had about 50% Malay Malaysians. It also has about 30% Indian Malaysians.

The Bukit Selambau seat fell vacant after V Arumugam of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) resigned on 8 Feb. Arumugam had contested the seat last year as an independent, beating MIC’s S Krishnan by a 2,362-vote majority.

Bumiputera quota

On another matter, the state Gerakan youth said it was concerned that nothing had moved since November when the Kedah government announced that it was reverting to a 30% Bumiputera housing quota policy.

Tan said the PAS-led state government should make a clear stand on whether the quota was still 50% as proposed by the state after it took over Kedah in the general election last year.

On 24 Nov, the state reverted to 30% after objections by several quarters, especially the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda).

Rehda had also said that it would set up a joint committee with the state government to develop a release mechanism for unsold Bumiputera lots.

“To date, there is no announcement by the state government on their position in this matter. We call on the Pakatan Rakyat (PR)-led government to state clearly whether they are still agreeable to the release mechanism,” Tan said.