Manikavasagam s/o Sundram (

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

: சு. மாணிக்கவாசகம்) (born 27 June 1965) is a

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...

politician and social activist. He is a member of

Parti Rakyat Malaysia The Malaysian People's Party (abbreviation: PRM; Malay: ''Parti Rakyat Malaysia'') is a political party in Malaysia. Founded on 11 November 1955 as Partai Ra'ayat, it is one of the older political parties in Malaysia and traces its pedigree t ...

(PRM). Manikavasagam Sundram was the Member of the

Parliament of Malaysia The Parliament of Malaysia ( ms, Parlimen Malaysia) is the national legislature of Malaysia, based on the Westminster system. The bicameral parliament consists of the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives, Literal translation, lit. "People's A ...

for the

Kapar Kapar is a town in Klang District, Selangor, Malaysia. The Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Power Station is located not far from town. The Kapar River which flows nearby the town centre empties into the Straits of Malacca The Strait of Malacc ...

constituency in

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

from 2008 to 2013, as a member of the

People's Justice Party The People's Justice Party ( ms, Parti Keadilan Rakyat , often known simply as KEADILAN or PKR) is a reformist political party in Malaysia, formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the older Malaysian People's Party. The ...

(PKR) in the

Pakatan Harapan The Alliance of Hope ( ms, Pakatan Harapan; abbrev: PH; stylized as HARAPAN) is a Malaysian political coalition consisting of centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has been the r ...

(PH) opposition coalition. Manikavasagam was elected to Parliament in the 2008 election, winning the seat of Kapar, previously held by the

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 se ...

(BN) coalition. Before his election, Manikavasagam was a prominent leader in the

Hindu Rights Action Force Hindu Rights Action Force, better known by its acronym HINDRAF ( ms, Barisan Bertindak Hak-Hak Hindu, ta, இந்து உரிமைகள் போராட்டக் குழு, Intu Urimaikaḷ Pōrāṭṭak Kuḻu); is a Hindu- acti ...

(HINDRAF). In December 2008, Manikavasagam announced he would leave PKR, citing disappointment with the party's leadership in Selangor. He eventually resigned from a leadership position within PKR, but not from the party itself. In June 2009, an arrest warrant was issued for Manikavasagam after he allegedly refused to respond to a subpoena to testify at an inquest into the death of an actress. Manikavasagam applied to have the warrant set aside, and eventually testified at the inquest. Less than two weeks later, he was arrested over an unrelated public demonstration. PKR did not renominate Manikavasagam to defend his

parliamentary seat in the 2013 election. He contested the

Selangor State Legislative Assembly The Selangor State Legislative Assembly ( ms, Dewan Negeri Selangor) is the unicameral state legislature of the Malaysian state of Selangor. The State Assembly is composed of 56 members representing single-member constituencies throughout the sta ...

seat of Bukit Melawati instead, losing to a

United Malays National Organisation The United Malays National Organisation (Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its in ...

(UMNO) candidate. In 2014 he was suspended from PKR for making allegations of "money politics" against the Selangor Chief Minister

Khalid Ibrahim Abdul Khalid bin Ibrahim ( ms, عبدالخالد بن إبراهيم, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; 14 December 1946 – 31 July 2022) was a Malaysian politician who served as the 14th Menteri Besar of Selangor from 2008 to 2014. He ...

. After the lifting of his suspension, he challenged Khalid for the leadership for the Selangor division of PKR, and won, part of a series of events culminating in Khalid's downfall as Chief Minister later in the year. On 7 April 2018, he announced that he has rejoined

(PRM), a party which he first joined in 1999 before leaving for PKR in 2000. He also contested for the Kapar parliamentary seat and Meru state seat in the 2018 election under PRM ticket but lost both.

Election results

References

1965 births Living people People from Selangor Malaysian politicians of Indian descent Malaysian politicians of Tamil descent Parti Rakyat Malaysia politicians Former People's Justice Party (Malaysia) politicians Members of the Dewan Rakyat 21st-century Malaysian politicians {{Malaysia-politician-stub