ODDS of winning the Cameron Highlands by-election are heavily stacked against Pakatan Harapan now that Barisan Nasional has fielded an Orang Asli, said Lim Kit Siang.

The DAP parliamentary leader said Ramli Mohd Noor comes to the polls with an impressive record as a police officer and Cameron Highlands native, giving him an advantage among the Orang Asli community.

The Iskandar Puteri MP said PH workers will have to work miracles to ensure the party’s candidate, M. Manogaran, repeated the miracle that was the 14th general election.

“It is sad and most unfortunate that BN and Umno did not field an Orang Asli candidate of Ramli’s stature when they were in power.

“Had Ramli been a BN lawmaker earlier, he could go on to become a deputy minister or even a full minister to end the neglect and marginalisation of the Orang Asli community and bring them to the national mainstream,” said Lim in the statement issued today.

Acting BN chairman and Umno president Mohamad Hasan said the former assistant commissioner of police will reel in Orang Asli votes.

“I’m sure the Orang Asli will give him 100% support,” he said after announcing Ramli’s candidacy.

Mohamad said Ramli will be fielded as a direct candidate for BN, as previously done by the coalition in the 2016 Sarawak elections.

Lim said the Orang Asli Affairs Department (Jakoa) inability to solve the problem of the Orang Asli’s poverty indicated the continued neglect and marginalisation of the community.

He noted that it was only recently that a member of the community had become its director-general, and that less than 22% of Jakoa’s staff are from the community.

Lim said PH represented the future and hoped the community would go with its candidate.

“The Cameron Highlands by-election is PH’s opening salvo for the 15^th general election battle in four years’ time to win the Pahang state government, which will enable the long-standing land problems of Orang Asli to be resolved,” he wrote.

The election court nullified the May 9 results of the Cameron Highlands seat after finding evidence voters were induced to vote for MIC vice-president C. Sivarraajh, the BN candidate who won the five-cornered fight.

In GE14, Sivarraajh won 10,307 votes, gaining a slim 597-vote majority over DAP candidate M. Manogaran (9,710).

PAS garnered 3,587 votes, PSM 680 votes, and Berjasa 81 votes.

Cameron Highlands was one of two parliamentary seats MIC won in GE14. – January 10, 2019.