Will Uthaya's party enter the fray?

FMT-

KUALA LUMPUR: In Bangsar, a David is contemplating on doing battle with not one, but two Goliaths in the upcoming by-election for the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat.

A political underdog it might be, but the wise often say that it is not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but rather the size of the fight in the dog.

And the forces behind the Human Rights Party (HRP) have proven in the past that they can deliver one heck of a bite, at least as far as Indian votes are concerned.

Contacted this afternoon, HRP secretary-general P Uthayakumar said the central committee will hold a meeting at the party headquarters in Bangsar Utama here this Sunday to discuss this issue.

When pressed further, the HRP leader refused to divulge more details.

“I am just the secretary-general. I work for the party. It is the central committee which must decide on this issue. It has to be a collective decision,” he said.

Uthayakumar also refused to speculate on whether the yet-to-be registered HRP will create a significant impact should it decide to field a candidate.

“It's too early to say anything. We cannot speculate now. Let's wait for Sunday and see what happens,” he said.

Uthayakumar, a lawyer by profession, was among the five Hindraf leaders responsible for the November 2007 mammoth protest in Kuala Lumpur which drew tens of thousands of Indian Malaysians to the streets.

The epochal protest was described as the “political awakening” of the community and saw the traditional supporters of Barisan Nasional casting their ballots for the opposition in the 2008 general election.

A month after the protest, Uthayakumar and the other four were detained under the Internal Security Act, and were heralded as heroes by the Indian community, especially those of the working class.

The five were freed after Najib Tun Razak became prime minister in April 2009.

Gauge the support

Meanwhile, political obeservers feel that HRP should contest in the by-election to gauge its support among the masses, especially the Indian community.

“Since they were released from ISA, Hindraf has become fragmented, with the leaders accusing each other of corruption and so forth.

“So by fielding a candiate, HRP will know how much this fallout has affected the popularity of Hindraf, especially Uthayakumar,” said one observer.

Furthermore, he said HRP's entry will also give voters, who are fed up with Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, a third option.

Whatever the case, the observer noted that if HRP decides to contest, it will definitely pose problems for both BN and Pakatan.

On numerous occasions, Uthayakumar has lambasted the Pakatan leadership as not being any different from BN leaders in turning a blind eye to the woes of the Indian community.

The Hulu Selangor seat fell vacant following the death of the PKR incumbent Zainal Abidin Ahmad last night.

In the 2008 general election, Zainal Abidin won the Malay-majority seat after defeating MIC deputy president G Palanivel, who was the MP since 1990, with a wafer-thin majority of 198 votes.

MIC has already proposed Palanivel's name for the by-election while PKR has yet to name its candidate.

Hulu Selangor is a semi-urban mixed seat of 63,539 voters of whom 53.9 percent are Malay, Chinese (26.7 percent) and Indians (19 precen