Having witnessed vicious infighting within the People’s Progressive Party (MyPPP), actor-comedian S. Ganapragasam says he never entertained thoughts of joining the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC).
A leadership battle between Tan Sri M. Kayveas and Datuk Seri Maglin Dennis D’Cruz saw the Registrar of Societies deregister MyPPP in 2019.
“I did not want to join MIC after my experience in MyPPP,” said Ganapragasam, better known as Gana.
“I wanted something different. A fresh start in a party that welcomes all races. I did not want to be in a single-race party like MIC and that is why I joined Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia,” he added.
Ganapragasam, 54, said although Bersatu is predominantly a Malay party, he is part of its non-Bumiputera associate wing, serving as its Sungai Buloh branch chief.
Ganapragasam, who graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from University Malaysia Pahang in March, said he chose Bersatu as he believes in the leadership of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“Muhyiddin is a reasonable man who helped many people before, during, and after he was prime minister.
“He did not discriminate when sending aid to those in need. That is something I value. We should be colour blind when helping others. That is why I decided to join Bersatu.”
Bersatu is part of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.
On Saturday, Ganapragasam was at Dewan Kenanga, Petaling Land and District Office in Shah Alam, Selangor, to support PN candidate Mohd Ghazali Md Hamin, who hopes to win the parliamentary seat.
Ghazali is in a seven-cornered fight against Barisan Nasional’s Khairy Jamaluddin, Datuk R. Ramanan (Pakatan Harapan), Mohd Akmal Mohd Yusof (Pejuang), Ahmad Jufliz Faiza (Parti Rakyat Malaysia) and independents Syed Abdul Razak Syed Long Alsagoff and Nurhaslinda Basri.
Ganapragasam said PN was confident of upstaging Pakatan Harapan (PH) in Sungai Buloh, but admitted that the coalition was surprised that Khairy was standing in the area.
He, however, said Khairy’s popularity could help PN win the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat by stealing voters from PH.
Ganapragasam added he will be taking a break from the movie world for the next two weeks, to campaign for Mohd Ghazali.
“Before Khairy was announced as a candidate, we were confident it would be a straight fight between PN and PH,” said Gana, who has been active in movies and television for nearly two decades.
“Khairy is a popular politician who has many followers. But that popularity can work in our favour as he can ‘steal’ some votes from Pakatan.
“I sent him a message, welcoming him to Sungai Buloh. It will be an interesting contest. Many eyes will be on us because of KJ.”
Once dubbed Malaysia’s King of Comedy, Ganapragasam won acclaim for his 2010 breakout movie Appalam, where he played an overprotective father, Appalasamy, to Shruthi (Raja Ilya). Jaclyn Victor was cast as Ganapragasam’s wife (Nalaini) in the movie.
Appalam won the Best Film Award at the first Malaysian Indian Film Festival in 2012. His last movie role was in the 2018 movie Atcham Thavir.
Ganapragasam, who is also a producer cum director, is working on his newest movie, Mee Curry The Movie, which comes out in March 2023.
“The movie will be 50 per cent about a Chinese person and 50 per cent about an Indian character. We did not want to tell a story about only one race,” he added.