Some 70 non-Chinese Gerakan members today demanded one parliamentary and one state seat for this group out of the 11 parliamentary and 30 state constituencies allocated to the party - or face a possible call for a boycott of candidates during the general election.

Lembah Jaya (Ampang) division secretary A Rajaretnam said if the party leadership fails to meet their demand by tonight, a large delegation of non-Chinese members may march to Putrajaya tomorrow to meet Barisan Nasional chairperson Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"I believe he has given additional seats to Gerakan this time in consideration of the large number of Indian members, especially in Selangor," he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

"This is the first time we're going to the press with this issue because our appeals to the party leadership in the past have been falling on deaf ears," he added.

Said another grassroots leader: We've been tolerating this for over a decade now, and we refuse to tolerate it anymore."

Gerakan has 20,000 Indian members in Selangor alone out of the 60,000 nationwide. Over the last few weeks, they have been resorting to backdoor negotiations to secure the two seats and felt almost certain of getting them.

"We were made to believe this up to late yesterday, but then everything fell apart...our contacts told us that we would not get any of the seats," Rajaretnam said.

He said it was too late to negotiate with party leaders now as the candidates' lists for all Barisan Nasional component parties are expected to be submitted to Abdullah tomorrow.

"We hope Pak Lah would understand our problem and act accordingly," he said.

G erakan 'excuses' rejected

The group is also toying with the idea of withholding votes if the demand for at least one parliamentary seat in Selangor is not met.

He said that, if the meeting with Abdullah fails, the group will get members nationwide to withhold votes and thereby deny Gerakan candidates a win in areas with a significant Indian minority.

"Don't forget, in Beruas (Perak), the incumbent (and party president Dr Lim Keng Yaik) still has to approach the Indian voters for support," he warned.

The members claimed to have raised the matter at previous annual general meetings, including sending 'signals' to party leaders, but alleged that their appeals have been greeted with silence or excuses.

Rajaretnam said Gerakan leaders have been telling them that their proposed representative was either "too young to contest or incompetent to do the job of an elected representative". However, he rejected these claims as not true.

"If we were to follow the quota based on Gerakan's racial composition, we should be getting seven to eight seats but we're only asking for two," he said.

"Furthermore, two Gerakan candidates in Penang are far younger than our nominee. What then is the real reason for denying us the seats?"

He declined to reveal the names of the nominees.

'Win-ability factor'

Rajaretnam said Gerakan's Indian members already hold an excellent record as councillors in local authorities.

"They are hard-working and better qualified than other candidates nominated by the party, most of whom also have a poor command of English and Bahasa Malaysia."

He said that, in the 1995 election, Dr Pius Martin was the only Indian member that Gerakan fielded as a candidate in Bukit Lanjan (Selangor state seat, which he won), but there were none in 1999.

Contacted later, Gerakan vice-president Dr S Vijayaratnam said Gerakan allocated seats based on win-ability and ability to serve the constituents.

"The political reality in Malaysia is that most seats given by the BN are in Chinese-majority areas, so it would be better to field a candidate from that racial majority. I would advise the non-Chinese members to be patient and not resort to drastic measures," he said.

"There is no point placing an Indian or a non-Chinese just for the sake of doing so. Gerakan is a non-racial party and there are no quotas."

Vijayaratnam also said two non-Chinese names had been proposed this time around, but that they had to be dropped because of the win-ability factor among others.

"Non-Chinese members are not the only ones frustrated. I can tell you for a fact that there are more Chinese prospective candidates who are disappointed that they have not been selected," he added.