GERAKAN is likely to give up the Batu parliamentary seat in Kuala Lumpur to the People’s Progressive Party (MyPPP) in a swap involving the Kepong seat, said a MyPPP source.

“Gerakan has lost in Batu in the past two elections, it’s reasonable for them to give it up. MyPPP has also been active in Batu for the past few years, the public has been quite accepting of us,” a party official told The Malaysian Insight, but did not want to be quoted due to ongoing negotiations.

The source said either party president M. Kayveas or Deputy Federal Territories Minister Loga Bala Mohan, who is also a MyPPP vice-president, would be fielded in Batu, which was a Barisan Nasional bastion before the 2008 political tsunami.

That year, PKR’s  Chua Tian Chang, popularly known as Tian Chua, defeated former Gerakan president Lim Keng Yaik’s son, Lim Si Pin, with a majority of 9,455 votes. Tian Chua has held the seat since then.

The MyPPP source said the party had agreed to return Kepong to Gerakan. which it contested in the 13th general election. Both MyPPP and Gerakan are component parties of the ruling BN coalition.

In the 2013 polls, MyPPP’s Chandrakumanan Arumugam was thumped by DAP veteran Tan Seng Giaw, who has held Kepong since 1982.

Asked if the Batu-Kepong swap was final, Kayveas said seat distribution talks among BN component parties had yet to be completed.

“The only thing I can confirm to you is that I will not stand in Batu… Cameron Highlands is the only constituency I’ll contest,” he said.

MyPPP has also been lobbying to contest in Cameron Highlands, an MIC seat.

However, Kayveas may not get his wish as Pahang BN chief and Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob had said the Cameron Highlands seat belonged to MIC.

MIC Youth chief Sivarraajh Chandran is being touted as the Cameron Highlands candidate. 

Former MIC president G. Palanivel beat DAP’s M. Manogaran and three other candidates with a majority of 462 votes to become the MP for Cameron Highlands in 2013.

The seat was held by MIC deputy president S.K. Devamany between 2004 and 2013.

Meanwhile, Gerakan vice-president Dominic Lau refuted speculation that Batu would be given to MyPPP.

“This speculation about MyPPP representing BN in Batu has been around since the previous election… MyPPP did make such a request last year, but this has been resolved,” said Lau.

In the 2013 polls, Tian Chua defeated Lau, Berjasa’s Hashim Karim, and two independents with a majority of 13,284 votes.

BN had held Batu from 1986 to 2008.

Before 2008, the closest the opposition had come to wresting the seat from BN was in 1999, when Sanusi Osman of Parti Rakyat Malaysia lost to BN’s Ng Lip Yong by 2,297 votes.

Former Labour Party leader and Gerakan co-founder Dr Tan Chee Khoon held Batu between 1964 and 1974 as an opposition leader. – January 26, 2018.