YOURSAY | ‘Leave it, Charles, let’s turn together to the battle’

YOURSAY | ‘Why not go to the ground and campaign for the Harapan candidate?’

Charles: Klang 7-cornered fight because I'm not contesting

MS: Former Klang MP Charles Santiago, it should be obvious by now that your statement, "I wish (V) Ganabatirau well and, again, ask the people to vote in the Pakatan Harapan government”, has done little if any to quieten the shrill and strident voices raised against you - those who fear Ganabatirau's loss of the seat you held for three terms.

While no one outside Klang knows whether the voters there will back the DAP regardless of who stands there, there is quite possibly a feeling that your performance up close and personal over three terms has captured their hearts and minds to the detriment of whoever else the party places there.

If that indeed is the case, it may come down to you and you alone to persuade them to vote for the party, which I understand, do not care what you feel or say any more about the events which led to your current position (you being dropped as a candidate).

Those outside the constituency, and who are quite possibly your most vociferous detractors, do not have the emotional connection with you that those inside do. Which explains why they see you as just another small cog in the party's wheel. All of which makes the case for your direct and very visible involvement in the campaign.

Your successor does not feel that deep enough to reach out to you personally. It will be easy for us from the outside to ask you to be the bigger man and do the needful.

Whatever your decision and those of your constituents on Nov 19, I wish you well while joining them to thank you for your services, which even your opponents have described as exemplary.

Appum: Charles, stop the negative comments and the showing of your emotional side. You have done well; your past services have been recognised. When you were first not nominated, you have shown great maturity and statesmanship in your initial reaction.

Now, you are showing your negative side. This is not the end of your political journey by staying out of this contest. You should go down to the ground and help your party win again with 100,000 surplus votes.

By behaving like this now, you are just spoiling your future in DAP.

Vijay47: We are not privy to the real goings-on behind the scenes within Pakatan Harapan if there indeed be such, and most of us would fully sympathise with you, Charles, over your being shockingly dropped from candidature.

To your credit, Charles, and despite the injustice done to you, you have remained a gentleman. Unlike another leader, who piously informed that "this is a party I have a strong emotional attachment with” and proceeded to stand against his own party’s candidate, you have magnanimously chosen to remain outside the fray. Who knows, with your popularity, you may have won had you stood as an independent.

Ganabatirau seeking your assistance reflects his humility and his respect for you, Charles, he acknowledges he is a relative newcomer to Klang and your help would be immeasurable.

Whether he approaches you personally or through the media is a minor detail to be disregarded. Let us not flog the dead candidate horse anymore. Like a Chennai auto-driver told me years ago in a fare squabble I had with another driver, “Vittidu, anneh, vittidu.”

Leave it, brother, leave it. Let us turn together to the battle.

Gerard Lourdesamy: Charles, do you want to be Klang MP for life? Do you want to be like former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who wants to be an MP until he turns 102?

This is the problem with some of our MPs who become so attached to their seat that after 15 years, it appears they want the seat to become their private fiefdom. I am very disappointed with Charles’ attitude.

It was a democratic decision by the DAP to give another candidate a chance. What is so wrong with that?

In politics, nobody is indispensable. As a party member, you must be loyal and disciplined. Yes, you were a very good MP, but now the time has come to give somebody else a chance.

Why not go to the ground and campaign for the Harapan candidate? Harapan cannot afford to lose any of its incumbent seats. Be magnanimous and mature.

In the 14th general election, your party colleague, Tony Pua, won by a majority of 120,000 in Damansara, the biggest ever in the history of the country. Yet he graciously stepped down and is supporting the Harapan candidate there.

People condemn the Sungai Buloh Harapan candidate for behaving like a MIC bully because of his past link to that party. How is Charles behaving now?

Even if you were given the Klang seat, it would still have been a minimum five or six-cornered flight. This general election is very different from the last one.

I also doubt that Charles would have won with a 100,000-vote majority. This endless blowing off your own trumpet is very cheap and unbecoming of you.

Darwin Fernandez: Charles, you have a choice to make now. Are you going to support the Harapan government or are you going against it because you were not nominated?

If you choose to support Harapan, then go all out and show the people that you are a team player. People will remember you for it.

But if you choose not, please stop issuing media statements that confuse the people. Please be quiet and let the people decide.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. In the past year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.