Saraswathy Kandasami

Saraswathy Kandasami
சரசுவதி கந்தசாமி
Deputy Minister of National Unity
Assumed office
12 December 2023
MonarchsAbdullah
(2023–2024)
Ibrahim Iskandar
(since 2024)
Prime MinisterAnwar Ibrahim
MinisterAaron Ago Dagang
Preceded byWan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal
ConstituencySenator
Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development
In office
10 December 2022 – 12 December 2023
MonarchAbdullah
Prime MinisterAnwar Ibrahim
MinisterEwon Benedick
Preceded byMuslimin Yahaya
Succeeded byRamanan Ramakrishnan
ConstituencySenator
Senator
Appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong
Assumed office
10 December 2022
MonarchsAbdullah
(2022–2024)
Ibrahim Iskandar
(since 2024)
Prime MinisterAnwar Ibrahim
Vice President of the
People's Justice Party
Assumed office
20 July 2022
PresidentAnwar Ibrahim
Personal details
Born
Sarawathy Kandasami

(1968-09-24) 24 September 1968 (age 56)
Penang, Malaysia
Alma materUniversity of London
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionLawyer

Saraswathy s/o Kandasami (born 24 September 1968) is a Malaysian politician and lawyer who has served as the Deputy Minister of National Unity in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Minister Aaron Ago Dagang since December 2023 as well as Senator since December 2022. She served as the Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development in the PH administration under Prime Minister Anwar and Minister Ewon Benedick from December 2022 to December 2023. She is a member of the People's Justice Party (PKR), a component party of the PH coalition. She has also served as the Vice President of PKR since July 2022.[1][2]

Political career

Vice President of the People's Justice Party (since 2022)

After the 2022 PKR party election on 20 July 2022, President of PKR Anwar appointed Saraswathy as the Vice President of PKR, serving alongside four elected vice presidents Amirudin Shari, Aminuddin Harun, Chang Lih Kang and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad as well as two appointed vice presidents Nurul Izzah Anwar and Awang Husaini Sahari.

Candidate for the Member of Parliament (2022)

In the 2022 general election, Saraswathy made her electoral debut after being nominated by PH to contest for the Tapah federal seat. She lost to defending MP Saravanan Murugan of Barisan Nasional (BN) by a minority of 5,064 votes.

Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development (2022–2023) & Senator (since 2022)

On 10 December 2022, Prime Minister Anwar appointed Saraswathy as Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives, deputising for Minister Ewon. As she was not an MP, Sarawasthy was also appointed as Senator for her to hold the deputy ministerial position.

Deputy Minister of National Unity (since 2023)

In a cabinet reshuffle on 12 December 2023, Saraswathy was retained as a Deputy Minister but was moved from the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative to the Ministry of National Unity, deputising for Minister Aaron. On 27 March 2024, she revealed that the proposed amendments to the 2012 Rukun Tetangga act were being fine-tuned. She added that the amendments would pay more attention to neighbourhood pillar initiative than was being implemented. In addition, she reported that there were 8,428 neighbourhood watch committees established nationwide with the membership of 210,000 individuals, encompassing 12.5 million people. Besides, she also outlined the objective of the ministry was to realise the empowerment initiatives as a force for progressive community development through eight areas of focus ranging from the economy and livelihood, security and self-reliance, leadership, community well-being, lifelong learning and the environment to cultural and digital heritage. Furthermore, she noted that several activities had been drawn up to encourage the participation of youths in neighbourhood community (KRT), like the Young, Effective and Smart (YES) programme, Jiran Muda as well as e-Entrepreneur and Young Neighbour Innovation Team initiative.[3]

Election results

Parliament of Malaysia
Year Constituency Candidate Votes Pct Opponent(s) Votes Pct Ballots cast Majority Turnout
2022 P072 Tapah Saraswathy Kandasami (PKR) 13,334 29.98% Saravanan Murugan (MIC) 18,398 41.36% 44,481 5,064 71.81%
Muhammad Yadzan Mohamad (BERSATU) 12,115 27.24%
Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi (PEJUANG) 335 0.75%
Mohamed Akbar Sheriff Ali Yasin (Warisan) 200 0.45%
M.Kathiravan (IND) 99 0.22%

References

  1. ^ "Saraswathy A/P Kandasami, HON. Senator Puan". Senate. Parliament of Malaysia. 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  2. ^ "List Of Deputy Ministers In Anwar's Cabinet And Their Party". Business Today. Malaysia. 10 December 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  3. ^ "Amendments to Rukun Tetangga act being fined tuned, says Saraswathy". The Star. 27 March 2024. Retrieved 27 March 2024.