PETALING JAYA, April 15 — The granddaughter of late left-wing guerilla fighter and feminist Shamsiah Fakeh is said to have been selected as candidate for the coming 14th general election.
Jamaliah Jamaluddin, special aide to DAP’s Damansara Utama state assemblyman Yeo Bee Yin may be tasked with defending the Kampung Tunku state assembly seat currently being held by DAP’s Lau Weng San, a source told Malay Mail’s sister publication ProjekMMO.
Lau had in 2013 had won the seat with a majority of 13,685 votes but is expected to be transferred to Banting (formerly Teluk Datuk).
Shamsiah had led the pioneer nationalist women’s group Angkatan Wanita Sedar, and later fought for the Communist Party of Malaya, until her exile to China in 1956.
Following the Hatyai Peace Accord in 1989, she was granted permission to return in 1994 but was barred from entering politics. She passed away in 2008.
Sources in the party also claimed the appointment of Jamaliah, who is a Petaling Jaya City Council member, is “guaranteed”.
“There is a 95 per cent chance that Jamaliah and five other new faces are going to be fielded by DAP in Selangor state seats,” the source said..
The electorate in the Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary constituency is 67 per cent ethnic Chinese, 20 per cent Malays and 12 per cent ethnic Indian.
The seat, now called Damansara after the redelineation, was won by DAP with a majority of 44,672 votes.
Another source claimed that besides Jamaliah, Selangor DAP committee member Edry Faizal Yusof, 33, would also be fielded for the Dusun Tua state assembly seat.
“Dusun Tua should have gone to Young Syefura but he was named for Ketari, so Edry will likely contest there,” the source said, referring to Kajang councillor Young Syefura Othman who would contest the Pahang state seat.
The Dusun Tua seat was first taken by the opposition in 2013. But the seat, held by PAS, is no longer under PH control after the former fell out with the opposition coalition.
The racial makeup of this area, which comes under the Hulu Langat federal constituency, is 53 per cent Malay, 37 per cent ethnic Chinese and 7 per cent ethnic Indian.
There are also four more new faces that DAP plans to field: Lim Yi Wei in Bandar Utama, Michelle Ng in Subang Jaya, Lai Wai Chong in Teratai, dan Tony Leong in Pandamaran.
Lau is expected to defend the Teluk Datuk state assembly seat (under the Kuala Langat federal constituency) which DAP had held with a majority of 5,391 votes in 2013.
Yeo Bee Yin had won the Damansara Utama state seat with 30,689 votes in Election 2013.
Damansara Utama has since been renamed Bandar Utama in the gazetted Election Commission’s redelineation exercise.
Yeo herself is expected to be sent to contest the Bakri federal seat in Johor which DAP incumbent Er Teck Hwa had won in 2013 with a majority of 5,067 votes, much higher than his majority of 722 votes in 2008.
The Teratai seat was taken by DAP with a majority of 13,646 votes and Pandamaran was won with a majority of 9,176 votes.
But information coming from within the party seemed contradictory with one source claiming that the six new candidates would be announced soon while another said the names had not been finalised.
“The seat allocation has not been finalised. There has been no official announcement by DAP on any seats in Selangor,” the source said.
