‘Local candidate will win the battle for Cameron Highlands’

Ramakrishnan Ramasamy.

CAMERON HIGHLANDS: The stage is set here for one of the hottest battles in the 14th general election (GE14) amid various issues which could tip the scales for the once “safe seat of Barisan Nasional (BN)”.

Voters in Cameron Highlands have many things on their minds, and are far from happy as issue after issue continues to plague the constituency known for its tea and strawberry plantations.

Question marks remain over the BN candidate as both MyPPP president M Kayveas and MIC Youth chief Sivarraajh Chandran are vying for the coalition’s ticket.

PSM secretary B Suresh and former DAP candidate M Manogaran are also expected to be fielded.

In GE13, three other candidates also vied for the seat: Berjasa’s Shokri Mahmood and independents Alagu Thangarajoo and Kisho Kumar Kathirveloo.

The presence of Kayveas in Cameron Highlands is more apparent than that of Sivarraajh, who has only made a handful of visits in the space of a month.

Kayveas is often spotted holding his weekly walkabouts in Tanah Rata, chatting with passers-by and eating at breakfast stalls near the bus terminal.

He has also officially launched his new home at Jalan Carnation 2, Tanah Rata, and his service centres are visible throughout the town.

Suresh, another local candidate, also appears to have made an impact in Cameron Highlands as he champions the rights and grouses of locals who have been plagued for years by various problems.

These include the massive flooding in Ringlet in 2013 and 2014, which left destruction and caused several deaths.

As these incidents occurred when former MIC president-turned-independent G Palanivel was the MP, locals refer to the Cameron Highlands MP as “the one who vanished” after winning the seat in 2013.

Local candidate

Regional Environment Awareness Cameron Highlands (REACH) president Ramakrishnan Ramasamy says a “local” candidate will win the Cameron Highlands seat in GE14.

“People are fed up of politicians that come here, win the election and then disappear until the next election.

“As locals, we want someone who will be here all the time to listen to our problems and suggestions, and who can come up with solutions to them,” he said when met by FMT.

He added that Palanivel had “vanished” after winning the election.

“He was gone as soon as he won it. We went through the floods, the illegal farming, and all other issues alone. We did not have a representative to solve our problems.”

Issues plaguing Cameron Highlands

Locals said Cameron Highlands was plagued with problems such as flooding, landslides, water and food contamination due to the use of banned pesticides, a drop in tourists, traffic jams and the implementation of a one-way road in Brinchang town which has left them baffled.

“We can accept the one-way road during weekends when we get lots of tourists here, but the one-way road during weekdays does not make sense and only burdens the locals,” said Ramasamy.

Siva Das, founder of website CameronHighlands.com, meanwhile lamented the mushrooming of apartment buildings in Cameron Highlands.

“The overdevelopment of apartments in Camerons has led to an oversupply. Hence, apartment owners are using these units as Airbnb, which directly impacts the occupancy of hotels all over Cameron Highlands.

“This affects our income as Airbnb can afford to offer lower prices than hotels due to less overheads and taxes involved,” said Siva, who also owns a cafe in the town.

In GE13, Palanivel retained the seat for BN with 10,506 votes, beating Manogaran by a slim 462 majority while 877 ballots were rejected.

Kayveas has recently claimed MyPPP had registered 5,000 new voters to add to the 28,000 voters in 2013.

Cameron Highlands also boasts one of the largest number of Orang Asli voters in any constituency, representing 20% of the total electorate. -FMT

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