Temiar, a BN vote bank is aided by PR: Kudos to MP Dr Jeyakumar & PAS

The Temiar of Sungai Siput have long been a reliable vote bank for the BN, something like 9,000 of them domiciled on the banks of tributaries of the Sungai Perak that crisscross the constituency, giving the ruling coalition 99 percent of the vote in the general election of 1999, 96 percent in 2004, and 90 percent in 2008.

Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj of the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), who was elected on a PKR ticket because PSM was not yet a registered political party in March 2008, asked help from his Pakatan Rakyat cohort in Sungai Siput.

Popularly known as 'Dr Kumar', Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj of the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) had made forays into Orang Asli villages deep in the interior of Sungai Siput even when he was not their elected MP prior to 2008, to see what could done for them. 

Reason being the Orang Asli are a terribly marginalised group and they needed all the help they can get, Dr Jeyakumar rationalized.

So when Pos Legap's Temiar wanted new cables for a dilapidated bridge, Dr Kumar and his crew of PSM stalwarts in Sungai Siput decided that it would be better to build a new bridge a kilometer away from the site of the old one but financial funding was  a problem given that opposition MPs are deprived by the federal government of constituency allocations rendered to the tune of RM2 million a year to BN legislators.

When Dr Kumar, who was elected on a PKR ticket because PSM was not yet a registered political party in March 2008, asked help from his Pakatan Rakyat cohort in Sungai Siput, the PAS leader in the constituency, Ahmad Mazlan Othman, a retired army engineer who had been a candidate for the Lintang state seat in the 1999 and 2004 elections, responded to Dr Kumar's call for help.

Ahmad was instrumental in getting his party to contribute RM5,000 to the overall cost of the new bridge which was estimated at RM70,000 while the rest of the budget was raised from the MP allowances for Dr Kumar (RM35,000), from sundry friends of his (RM20,000) and from two Catholic groups (RM10,000).

This joint effort by PSM and PAS will see the completion of the new bridge by this weekend or over the next.