Parti Sosialis Malaysia chairman Mohd Nasir Hashim today urged the Selangor MB to review the dropping of its party's councillor from Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ), reminding him of the agreement made in 2008.
“Right after the 2008 election, we were promised three councillor seats and that's what everyone agreed on. We are disappointed now with the fact that our candidate has been dropped without any reason and consultation,” said Mohd Nasir (left).
“If you are not happy with the candidate, we can change him although it won't be easy,” he said.
“But if you say they are under-performing, does it mean we don't do work, or we are not your friend?”
Mohd Nasir, also Kota Damansara assemblyperson, said rumours were rife since June that PSM's Panneerselvam Varathan would not be making the list of new MBPJ councillors.
“I have told Ronnie Liu in April that I want to retain all five councillors in Kota Damansara. When the rumours surfaced last month, Ronnie asked me to speak to Sivarasa.
“Sivarasa, when answering my call, said there are people who are unhappy with (Panneerselvam), hence he would be replaced by another PKR candidate," said Mohd Nasir.
'Why so many PKR'
“There are already two PKR councillors now, I don't understand why they have to put in another one here.
“They are trying to undermine my constituency,” said Mohd Nasir.
The Kota Damansara constituency is divided into five zones under two local government jurisdictions. PSM previously had two representatives, at MBSA and MBPJ, while PKR had two and DAP one.
With Panneerselvam dropped, PSM is now left with two councillors out of 289 councillor slots in Selangor. Their representative at MPKJ was retained.
It is understood that Sivarasa (right) has had bad blood with Nasir and Panneerselvam from a long-time dispute over squatters' right.
Panneerselvam also called the decision unfair.
“As far as I know, I have been 'too effective'. This can be seen from the attention given to Kota Damansara among the PJ (Petaling Jaya) areas,”
“Maybe this has made a lot of people uneasy. They think they should take the credit I got,” the two-term policymaker said.
'We worked hard'
Nasir said the three seats allocated to PSM symbolises the service they had given in those areas.
“We contested in Kajang and Kota Damansara during the last election. The reason why we got three seats is because of (the work that) we have done,”
He had written letters to Khalid Ibrahim, Anwar Ibrahim and exco for local government Ronnie Liu to demand a review.
“MB (Khalid) told me yesterday that he will seriously look into the issue,” said Mohd Nasir.
When asked, he denied that the move was a consequence of PSM deciding not to join the coalition, at their AGM (left) last month, saying PSM is still a friend of Pakatan.
“Although we are not joining them, we have said (since) day one that we are working with them in this struggle,” he said.
“I hope they can give us an answer quickly, so we can move forward as soon as possible,” he said.
Mohd Nasir said if they receive no response, the party will escalate the issue at the coming central committee meeting next week, and decide the next move from there.
