M. Kula Segaran s/o V. Murugeson, commonly referred to as Kula, is a Malaysian politician, barrister and formerly serving as the Minister of Human Resources. He is the National Vice-Chairman of the Democratic Action Party, he also served as the Member of Parliament for, Perak. Kula Segaran is an ethnic Tamil and has voiced many issues affecting the Malaysian Indian community. He sparked interest on social media for wearing thallapa during swearing-in ceremony as cabinet minister.
Personal life
M. Kula Segaran was born to a rubber tapper father in an estate in Sitiawan, Perak. Growing up, he and his brother had to look after cows, goats and also clean up the containers used to gather latex after school. In 1982, he was admitted as barrister at Lincoln’s Inn in London.
Political career
Kula Segaran, a barrister, was first elected to Parliament in a 1997 by-election for the seat of Teluk Intan. He shifted to the seat of Ipoh Barat at the 1999 general election, but lost. He re-contested the seat in the 2004 election, and this time won by a narrow margin. He was re-elected by wider margins in subsequent 2008 election, 2013 election and 2018 election.
Indian Rights
Kula Segaran is an ethnic Tamil and has voiced many issues affecting the Malaysian Indian community. He has claimed that "Indians are treated like third-class citizens" and criticised the demolition of Hindu temples.
Minister of Human Resources
After the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan emerged victorious at the 2018 Malaysian general election by forming the Federal Government, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced M.Kula Segaran's appointment as the Minister of Human Resources. He succeeds Richard Riot Jaem. Kula is the first Human Resources Minister to conduct the National Labour Advisory Council, a tripartite stakeholders meeting, 10 times in a year . The government, Malaysian Employers Federation and Malaysian Trades Union Congress are stakeholders in the NLAC. Kula recently made international headlines for declaring War on Human Trafficking in Malaysia after acknowledging that the country had been hurting from it. The Minister held Townhall sessions with employers urging them to start being more accountable and to assist the government in eradicating Forced Labour. Kula urged employers to start incorporating Social Compliance Audit reports as part of their accountability. The Minister wants to move up from being at Tier 2 Watchlist of the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons report and is working closely with stakeholders to achieve this. He has overseen several law amendments to better protect against discrimination as well as enhancing worker's rights and social protection. Kula has also championed the rights of the Orang Asli community as provided them a pathway to learn technical skills through Institutes under the Ministry. 17 Orang Asli students were enrolled in ILP Ipoh in 2020 following the 7 enrolled in 2019 after the encouragement of the Minister. As outlines in Kula's 2019 achievements as Minister, most notably was Empowering TVET learning to prepare for future jobs and emerging technologies that are shaping the industries of the future.
Kula was made chairman of the Malaysian chapter of the Parliamentarians for Global Action in 2019. He is also an Executive Board member of the group. In that capacity he has been advocating the need for Malaysia to ratify the Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court and to call for the Abolishment of the Mandatory Death Penalty and the ratification of The Arms Trade Treaty.
Controversy
In 2007, Kula Segaran was suspended from Parliament for four days for disobeying the Deputy Speaker, and in 2008 he was called a "bastard" and a "bloody bastard" by a government politician whom he accused of being "hated" by Indian constituents.
