Give us the seats or lose, HRP tells Pakatan

HRP leader P Uthayakumar warns that if Pakatan does not agree, it risks losing Perak to Barisan Nasional.

TAIPING: The Human Rights Party (HRP) has given an ultimatum to Pakatan Rakyat: Give the former seven state seats and three parliamentary seats to contest or risk losing the silver state to Barisan Nasional in the 13th general election.


HRP has surveyed Perak and found that the seven state constituencies have between 20% and 54% of Indian voters.

The seven seats demanded by HRP are Buntong with 47% of Indian voters, Hutang Melintang (33%), Jalong and Changat Jong each with 27%, Jelapang (21%), while Pasir Panjang and Sungkai each with 20%.

The three parliamentary seats are two DAP seats of Ipoh Barat (held by M Kualsegaran) and Teluk Intan (M Manogaran) and Sungai Siput (Parti Soialis Malaysia Dr M Jeyakumar).

Speaking to FMT, HRP pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar said if Pakatan refused to give these seats then it would result in three-cornered fight whereby BN would gain.

“We have nothing to lose politically but Pakatan has everything to lose with the state going to BN,” he warned.

His political assessment was that neither Pakatan nor BN were politically strong enough to rule Perak without the support of Indian voters.

Willing to discuss

He said that Pakatan had used Hindraf’s 2007 street protest to take control of five states and deny BN the two-thirds parliamentary majority in the last general election.

“This time around we are not giving them a blank checque to take Putrajaya,” he explained, adding that Indian voters would be the kingmakers in the coming polls.

Uthayakumar said he was open to discussions with Pakatan on this issue, but complained that none of the coalition’s state leaders had engaged HRP in a serious negotiation.

He also dismissed speculation that HRP was working with BN to ensure that Pakatan does not take Putrajaya in the next general election.

“Our number one enemy is Umno-BN which has denied the Indian community their share of the economic cake for the past 54 years,” he asserted.

The former Internal Security Act detainee conceded that support for Hindraf had dwindled since 2007 and accused Umno of using the police special branch to divide and “kill off” the movement.