MUAR, April 9 – Datuk Chua Jui Meng(Pic) has finally got a seat to contest after all – Segamat. The Johor PKR chairman was named as the PKR candidate for the Segamat parliamentary seat by PKR advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at a ceramah in Tangkak last night. Chua, who was leading the opposition charge in Johor, had gone missing for two weeks after DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang was named to contest the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat he had apparently been eyeing, under an opposition onslaught to gain ground in the Barisan Nasional (BN) stronghold of Johor.
It was also speculated that Chua might go for the Bakri parliamentary seat in the coming general election, the nomination and polling dates for which are expected to be announced by the Election Commission tomorrow. MIC deputy president and Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam was the MP for Segamat before the dissolution of the Dewan Rakyat on April 3, and is expected to defend the seat.
Speaking in Putrajaya today, Subramaniam welcomed “my good friend” and former health minister Chua for a healthy fight in Segamat. Subramaniam said Chua was one of those who had strongly campaigned for him from house-to-house in the 2004 General Election.
“Personally, he (Chua) was a good friend of mine while he was in the Barisan Nasional. When I first contested in Segamat, he strongly campaigned for me. Now he is going to campaign against me. So, let the people to decide.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m looking forward to a very good and healthy fight and I think we (the BN) stand a good chance of winning the seat,” he told reporters.
Subramaniam defeated DAP’s Pang Hok Liong by 7,809 votes in 2004 and beat Pang again, by a majority of 2,991 votes, to retain the seat in 2008. Chua, a former MP for Bakri, quit the MCA and joined PKR in 2009. At the Tangkak ceramah last night, Anwar also named six other PKR candidates for parliamentary seats in Johor, raising to 19 the number of seats in Johor to be contested by PKR.
Johor PKR vice-head Hassan Karim, who lost in the contest for the Johor Baharu parliamentary seat in 2008, has been named as the candidate for the Ledang parliamentary seat.
Johor PKR deputy head Dr Ahmad Faidi Saidi is to contest the Pasir Gudang parliamentary seat while the chairman of the PKR state election committee, Khuzan Mohammad, is to contest the Sri Gading parliamentary seat.
Federal Territory PKR Education and Training Bureau head Onn Abu Bakar is to contest the Sembrong parliamentary seat while a blogger Julailey Jemadi is to stand in the Sekijang parliamentary constituency. A former leader of the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (ABIM), Datuk Idris Jauzi, is to contest the Batu Pahat parliamentary seat.
BERNAMA
