Sivakumar the Perak Speaker under rain-tree now a minister

KUALA LUMPUR: V. Sivakumar who was appointed as Minister of Human Resources had created history in Perak or if not probably Malaysian political history as, during his tenure as state Speaker, the Perak State Assembly was convened and held under a rain-tree on March 3, 2009.

Sivakumar has called for an emergency sitting to table motions on the takeover of the state government.

The sitting was held under a rain tree after it was believed that the assemblypersons from the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had been prevented from entering the Perak Darul Ridzuan building, which houses the state assembly.

The incident caught wide attention and was remembered as a twist of humour event as the proceedings all happened under the tree with Sivakumar wearing his robe and songkok.

Starting his political career in 1997 by joining DAP, among professions Sivakumar has undertaken was as the political secretary to M. Kulasegaran who was the former Human Resource Minister, before contesting in the 12th General Elections (GE12) in 2008.

After 25 years in politics, Sivakumar, 51, who has been holding the Batu Gajah parliamentary seat since 2013, was appointed as the Minister of Human Resources under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's leadership.

The DAP deputy secretary-general obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Economics majoring in Public Administration at the University of Malaya in 1994 and subsequently an Associate Degree in Insurance Agency Administration (AIAA) from the Life Office Management Association, United States of America (USA) in 2000.

Besides politics, the father of two was professionally involved with Yayasan Perak, Ipoh as one of its Board of Directors in 2019 and the Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council, Kuala Lumpur's Board of Trustee in 2018.

In GE12, he won Perak's Tronoh state seat as a new face, beating Barisan Nasional's (BN) Lee Kim Choy by a 2,571 vote majority. In the same year, he was also sworn in as Speaker of the Perak State Legislative Assembly (DUN), carving history as the first person of Indian heritage to hold the position.

Moving forward into his political profession in the GE13, Sivakumar contested at the Batu Gajah parliamentary seat and won in a head-to-head fight with BN's Loo Thin Tuck, winning by a 53,770 vote majority and has also successfully defended to date.

In the recent GE15, Sivakumar won by a landslide victory at the Batu Gajah parliamentary seat with a 53,836 vote majority, beating Perikatan National's Woo Cheong Yuen and BN's Teoh Chin Chong.

-- BERNAMA