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Saraswathy Kandasami
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 careerVice 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
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