Over 130 artists, individuals and organisation of the arts community today declared wholehearted support to the PKR vice president R Sivarasa as the candidate for the Subang parliamentary seat.

Big weights of the industry such as Jo Kukathas, Antares, Edwin Sumun, Jit Murad, Huzir Suleiman, Kathy Rowland, Farish A Noor and Nell Ng, to name a few, expressed their solidarity in wanting to see Sivarasa in Parliament.

The group described Sivarasa as “a man of integrity who has vision for the nation as a whole”.

gmi election demands 270208 sivarasa rasiah They also said that Sivarasa was perceived to be an important voice to the arts community in their call for transparency and openness.

“His courage and quietly passionate desire to promote the basic right of all Malaysians to freely talk, walk and have their own diverse views, issues and cultures reflected in good government makes him an important voice to have in our Parliament.

“His intelligence and quiet wisdom coupled with his demonstrated ability to walk the talk makes him someone we badly need in our Parliament.

“He is a man of ability, integrity and ideals,” they said.

They added that Siva's advocacy in issues of human rights and social justice was not for political gain.

Since the late 1980's he has been involved in the human rights movement and in cases involving consumers, workers and women, they further said.

“His first involvement with human rights issues with a Malaysian NGO was in 1997 when he got involved with a women's group called Citizens Against Rape.

“Later he was active in helping the villagers of Bukit Merah who were protesting against a factory that was producing harmful radioactive waste.

“Later he became prominent in his anti-ISA activism - which led to his first arrest but also to the setting up of Suaram.”

Straight fight with MIC’s new face

They added that his vocal calls for more freedom in this country has seen him being arrested many times - most recently last year with a group of lawyers on a peaceful walk to celebrate International Human Rights Day.

subang parliamentary seat 270208 Sivarasa is married to actress and activist, Anne James of Five Arts Centre. James is also a signatory in the support letter for Sivarasa.

The March 8 general election sees this 52-year-old lawyer's third attempt for parliamentary representation. His maiden foray under the now defunct Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) in 1999 in Ampang Jaya resulted in a defeat to Ong Tee Keat by 7,767 votes.

During the 2004 elections under the PKR banner, the Rhodes scholar saw defeat again to Donald Lim Siang Chai in Petaling Jaya Selatan by 21,416 votes.

This time around Sivarasa is contesting against MIC first-timer S Murugesan, 40, in a constituency which has 84,414 voters, out of which 50 percent are Malay, 35.9 percent Chinese and 13.5 percent Indian.

In the 2004 general elections MIC's KS Nijhar romped home in Subang with a majority of 15,460 against PKR's Mohd Nasir Hashim.