Nomination Day for Cameron Highlands by-election is set for Saturday, January 12 and polling two weeks later on January 26.

Who will decide who will contest the Cameron Highlands by-election on behalf of Barisan Nasional? Barisan Nasional, UMNO, MIC or PAS?

The statement by the MIC Secretary-General S. Vell Paari that UMNO has not requested to contest the Cameron Highlands by-elections means nothing at all.

Dare the MIC President or Secretary-General declare that MIC will definitely be fielding the Cameron Highlands by-election candidate on behalf of Barisan Nasional and resign from his MIC office if this does not happen on Saturday?

Dare the Acting UMNO President Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan declare that MIC will definitely be fielding a candidate for the by-election on behalf of Barisan Nasional and that the candidate will not come from UMNO or any other party? If not, the reason for such thunderous silence?

PAS has declared that it will not contest in the Cameron Highlands by-election but will back a candidate put up by other opposition parties.

Did PAS tell UMNO that a MIC candidate for the Cameron Highlands by-election is completely unacceptable and PAS will not help to bring out the 3,587 votes which the PAS candidate garnered in the constituency in the 14th General Election last May, and this was the reason for the UMNO leadership overriding the MIC leadership and putting up an UMNO candidate?

Has the MCA leadership led by its new President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong agreed to the PAS suggestion that the Barisan Nasional candidate in the Cameron Highlands by-election should come from UMNO and not MIC?

I have been in Cameron Highlands twice in the past eight days – in fact, I was trapped together with the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the Cameron Highlands by-election, M. Manogaram, the PH MP for Bentong Wong Tack, PH Pahang State Assemblyman for Tanah Rata Chiong Yoke Kong to spend 2019 New Year’s Eve at Kampong Orang Asli Semoi Lama because heavy rain had made the road out of the interior inaccessible and we were cut off from all access to the outside world.

In my two visits to Cameron Highlands, I had visited seven of the nine Orang Asli Pos in the constituency which constitute a total of 27 Orang Asli kampongs, and had walkabouts in Ringlet, Bertam Valley and Kampong Raja.

What struck me in the last 24 hours was that to those-in-the-know about political developments in the country, including the political “aficionados” in Cameron Highlands, they are fairly unanimous about the latest political development, viz MIC would not be contesting in the Cameron Highlands by-election as an UMNO candidate will be entering the battle.

This had in fact been confirmed by the designated MIC candidate for Cameron Highlands who had confided this development to one of our leaders.

Who is this “mysterious” UMNO candidate for the Cameron Highlands by-election? Is he the person who will be tasked with taking over the leadership of the Opposition in Parliament if he can win the Cameron Highlands by-election?

This is why I am not convinced at all by the ambiguous statement by the MIC Secretary-General which is significant in that he dare not categorically state that MIC will be fielding a candidate in the Cameron Highlands by-election on behalf of Barisan Nasional.

This leads to the question whether Barisan Nasiuonal Supreme Council had met to discuss which political party would contest in the Cameron Highlands by-election.

Who can summon a meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council? Although Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi has been forced to hand over the duties of the President of UMNO to Mohamad Hasan, Zahid has not announced handing over the duties of President the Barisan Nasional to any other person. Must the BN Supreme Council meeting decide who should be the Acting BN President, or is this reserved for the UMNO President?

And has MIC become so irrelevant and inconsequential that the BN candidate for Cameron Highlands by-election can be taken away from MIC without any meeting of BN Supreme Council?

Is the MIC leadership capable of categorically clarifying this important question before this day is over?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Ringlet on Monday, 7th January 2019)