Independent Malar confident of garnering votes
SEREMBAN: Independent Malar Rajaram will not be backing out of the race for the state Rantau seat in the April 13 by-election despite the odds against her.
Describing herself as “thickskinned”, the 51-year-old housewife said that although she was alone during her campaign rounds most of the time, she was confident that the constituents would vote for her come polling day.
“I have had people walking up to me and telling me that I am just wasting my time.
“But an old man also walked up to me at the market, telling me that seven members of his family will be voting for me,” she said at the wet market here.
Malar, who has seven siblings, said they were shocked on learning of her decision to contest.
“They asked me why I was doing this since no one in our family was involved in politics.
“I just told them that I wanted to bring change and they went silent,” she said, adding that they could not help her campaign as they live in Malacca, Johor, Singapore and the Netherlands.
Malar, whose real name is Malarvizhi, said she would be unveiling her manifesto today and people would be able to judge her on her campaign then.
“I want constituents to only start giving donations to my campaign after seeing what I have to offer.
“If you think my manifesto is useless, then don’t give me any money,” she added.
She said she had also invited the independent candidate at the recent Semenyih by-election – Kuan Chee Heng, also known as Uncle Kentang – to be the guest speaker at the unveiling of her manifesto.
She said the Malaysian Society of Community Policing president was an inspiration and had agreed to attend her event although she did not know him personally.
Malar is going up against Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, Pakatan Harapan’s Dr S. Streram and another independent, Mohd Nor Yassin, in the polls.
Kuan came in last in the four-cornered fight in Semenyih, polling only 725 votes against the 19,780 secured by the winning candidate from Barisan, Zakaria Hanafi.