S. Sothinathan

Sothinathan s/o Sinna Goundar (எஸ். சோதிநாதன்; born 4 April 1960) or known as S. Sothinathan, is a Malaysian Politician of Indian Tamil origin. He was also vice-president of the Malaysian Indian Congress, a component party of the Barisan Nasional ruling coalition. He was formerly the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment.

Early life
Sothinathan was born on 4 April 1960.

Political career
Sothinathan made his first electoral debut in 2000 Telok Kemang by-election following death of its MP S. A. Anpalagan on 10 June 2000. He successfully elected as MP for Telok Kemang in 2004 general election. In 2005, Sothinathan was temporarily suspended for his criticism of the Barisan Nasional government during parliamentary debate when he got up to argue the fate of many Malaysian Indian medical students in Ukraine who were left stranded when their university was derecognized by the Government of Malaysia. His actions were criticised by many BN leaders but won much praise by Malaysian Indians, who saw him as fighting for their rights.

However, he lost his Teluk Kemang parliamentary seat in 2008 Malaysian general elections, which saw the ruling coalition losing 82 parliamentary seats out of 222 seats to the opposition.

In 2018, Sothinathan announced his campaign for PKR President and Leader of Pakatan Harapan Anwar Ibrahim in the Port Dickson by-election. He also stated that he had already quit MIC.

Honours

 * Negeri Sembilan :
 * MY-NEG Order of Loyalty to Negeri Sembilan.svg Knight Companion of the Order of Loyalty to Negeri Sembilan (DSNS) – Dato' (2004)