Prabakaran: Tian Chua preventing Anwar from becoming PM

Prabakaran: Tian Chua preventing Anwar from becoming PM


GE15 | Former PKR vice-president Tian Chua seems to be aiming to sap support from Pakatan Harapan in the Batu constituency in order to prevent opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim from becoming prime minister, incumbent P Prabakaran said.

Prabakaran (above), who is Harapan’s candidate for Batu, said Chua’s claim that “one vote for me (Chua), was one vote for Harapan” was confusing the electorate, especially the coalition’s supporters.

“His statement was confusing the voters and is preventing Harapan from winning and preventing Anwar from becoming prime minister,” he told Malaysiakini today.

Yet, unfazed by Chua’s efforts to garner Harapan supporters’ votes, Prabakaran said the chances of Harapan losing were there but “I am here to make sure Harapan wins.”

Prabakaran was referring to a statement he published in Sin Chew Daily yesterday (Nov 13).

“Although there is an effect (from his statement) I don’t see it is major because I have been on the ground, talking and engaging with people.

“People understand what he (Chua) is trying to do and they understand the political turmoil between him (Chua) and Harapan.

“So, I don’t even have to explain,” said Prabakaran.

‘No surprise’ Tian Chua standing as independent

Chua, who was Batu MP for two terms from 2008, was not fielded for the constituency this time after losing branch party elections to Prabakaran.

However, Prabakaran told Malaysiakini that he was not surprised to see Chua standing as an independent candidate on nomination day as he knew it as early as two weeks before.

He said Chua had also pressured him to cede his candidacy to the latter, and that Anwar tried to dissuade Chua from running.

Tian Chua

The former Batu MP was perceived to be associated with a group of PKR defectors, led by former deputy president Azmin Ali, who quit the party and triggered the fall of the Harapan government in February 2020.

Even though he remained in PKR, he was ostracised in the party as he was seen as an ally to Azmin.

Prabakaran said this was disappointing to him as the two had grown close when Chua campaigned for him in GE14, even though the former was running as an independent.

Chua was initially PKR’s candidate for the 2018 elections but was disqualified when he was fined RM2,000 by the Shah Alam High Court for insulting a police officer during a sedition investigation.

Prabakaran, then a student, won with a whopping 23,438 votes and became the youngest person elected into Parliament at the age of 22.

Following his victory, Prabakaran joined PKR and in May this year defeated Chua to become Batu PKR chief in the party polls.