Gerakan VP, S. Vijaya found dead - ref Malaysiakini

SEREMBAN: Gerakan vice-president Datuk Dr S. Vijayaratnam, 58, was found dead outside his clinic here at 11.20am on Monday. Police are investigating.

His body has been taken to the Tuanku Ja'afar Hospital here for post-mortem.

The police are expected to hold a press conference soon to brief reporters on their initial findings.


Datuk Dr S. Vijayaratnam.
The doctor-turned-politician comes from a family of politicians. His father, the late Dr S. Seevaratnam was Member of Parliament for Seremban Barat between 1969 and 1974, and was also DAP national treasurer.

His uncle, the late S. Rajaratnam, was Foreign Minister of Singapore from 1966 to the mid 1980s.

Vijayaratnam entered politics in 1981, the same year he entered private practice, after having served the Government for eight years. He was appointed a senator in 2002.

“I come from a family of politicians, so I’ve always been interested in politics,” he told The Star’s BizWeek in an interview late last year.

“When you are a doctor, you meet all kinds of people – rich, poor, corporate, blue-collar and white-collar. People in sickness also tend to expose their problems because psychology is a part of medicine.

“When they open up, you get drawn into their problems. Then comes the desire to try and do something to help them,” Vijayaratnam said.

The former parliamentary secretary of the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry also told BizWeek that Gerakan was his party of choice from the start because of his strong belief in a non-racial approach to Malaysian politics. (TheStar)