Keadilan Perak's plan to place candidates in two of the five parliamentary seats in the Kinta Valley has irked the state DAP.

On April 5, Keadilan announced its intention through Barisan Alternatif to contest 60 percent of seats in frontline states like Penang, Perak and Selangor.

DAP is still smarting from being left out of discussion of that decision which, Keadilan has since explained, was a spontaneous o­ne.

Chinese vote

Keadilan is eyeing any two seats in the Kinta Valley - Ipoh Timur, Ipoh Barat, Tambun, Gopeng and Batu Gajah.

MCA currently holds Ipoh Timur, Ipoh Barat and Gopeng; Tambun is in Umno hands and Batu Gajah is a DAP stronghold. All the constituencies have predominantly Chinese Malaysian voters.

When contacted, Keadilan deputy information chief Dr Lee Boon Chye said the party had initiated preliminary discussions with DAP early this year over seat allocations.

Lee, a supreme council member, said Keadilan has also held discussions with PAS within the Barisan Alternatif structure to decide where their candidates would stand in the general election, due by November 2004.

"Now we need to resolve issues with DAP. We have initiated discussion, but neither of us has put all our cards o­n the table yet," he told malaysiakini .

"Since the Election Commission had carried out a redelineation exercise, we feel it is time to reformulate the equation. It is o­nly fair to let us have at least two seats (in the Kinta Valley)," he said.

Central committee members of both parties have met in Kuala Lumpur but an amicable solution seem remote at this point.

Keadilan is vexed by DAP's insistence o­n keeping its 'traditional seats' contested in previous elections, while DAP is upset with Keadilan's eagerness to contest 60 percent of seats in the three major states.

Keadilan vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar, who heads the party's negotiating team, has called upon each state to hold discussions with DAP, so that contentious issues can be resolved before the central committee meets again in Kuala Lumpur.

'Working hard'

Commenting o­n Lee's statement, DAP Pantai Remis (Perak) state assembly representative Nga Kor Ming expressed disappointment that Keadilan "is always looking at our seats".

Nga, who is DAP Socialist Youth chief, claimed that the parliamentary seats in the Kinta Valley are the "heart of Perak DAP" and that the party would insist o­n contesting there.

He called upon Keadilan to respect DAP's wishes because it has been "working very hard for the people" in the Kinta Valley constituencies.

"We hope they will respect this. If they want to contest here, we will send our people to contest in areas like Permatang Pauh," Nga said.

(Permatang Pauh is currently held by Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is wife of jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.)

"My advice to them is to concentrate o­n their seats (which they contested in the 1999 general election)... work hard to win the hearts and minds of people instead of always looking at DAP seats," Nga said.

While saying that he did not want to engage in "a war of words" with Keadilan, he pointed out that voters would have to be the judge if three-cornered fights take place.

MCA unfazed

Meanwhile, a Perak MCA representative was unfazed by the interest shown by opposition parties in the Kinta Valley seats.

MCA Ipoh Timur member of Parliament Thong Fah Chong said he welcomed all parties to contest in the Kinta Valley.

"The more the merrier. It's a free and democratic country. As far as I am concerned, there is no problem if the opposition wants to contest all the seats in Kinta Valley," he said.

"MCA is always prepared. We have been doing our work every day, election (year) or not. This is the duty of the wakil rakyat (elected representative)."