Former Kapar MP raring to serve again

KAPAR: With the slogan “I am returning to serve you, vote for me and I will work for you”, former Kapar MP S. Manikavasagam is confident and hopeful his supporters in the area, for whom he served between 2008 and 2013, will vote for him again.

After a turbulent episode with PKR in the past year and being slapped with a twoyear suspension in what he claims was a witch-hunt against him, the exasperated politician resigned from the party to start anew with Parti Rakyat Malaysia, one of Malaysia’s oldest political parties.

“When I met the people, a large number in Kapar and Meru recognised me and asked me why I had not contested in the last elections and assured me of their support. I gave my best when I was Kapar MP. This is my forte, what I love doing and this is what I am. I want to continue serving the people here. I live here, Kapar is my home,” Manikavasagam told theSun yesterday.

The 53-year-old politician who is contesting in both the Meru parliamentary seat and Kapar state seat was dropped by PKR in 2013 to make way for previous Kapar MP G. Manivanan.

It will be a four-cornered fight for Kapar and a five-cornered one in Meru.

Manikavasagam who started off as a human rights activist in 2000 is well-known for taking up high-profile custodial death cases involving the police and other enforcement agencies.

He is a grassroots politician who is often seen on the ground, preferring to deal directly with those who seek his assistance.