Focusing on the four 'Es' after becoming an MP in 2013.
| When I was first elected to office in 2013 as the Member of Parliament for Serdang representing the DAP, I promised my voters that I would focus on the four “Es” at the national level, namely “Elections, Economics, Education and the Environment”.
Together with Tony Pua, I had blogged and written on a number of education-related issues including exposing the then vice-chancellor of University of Malaya for ‘boasting’ about UM being ranked 89th in the world when the ranking was due to an error of misclassifying the Chinese and Indian students in Malaysian universities as being international students.
We are still feeling the consequences of that delimitation exercise with my parliamentary constituency of Bangi almost reaching 200,000 voters and would likely exceed 300,000 voters before the next general election if Undi18 and automatic voter registration were carried out concurrently. But the academic in me also wanted to explain more complicated issues to the public including those that had to do with economics and finance. It was this desire which led to my collaboration with Teh Chi-Chang, the then executive director of the Research for Social Advancement , a think tank, on a series of articles to debunk the ‘myth’ which was the Economic Transformation Programme .
I had students come to me later to say that they used my research on Prasarana as part of their process to better understand public transportation challenges in Malaysia. To address this gap, I undertook projects that would allow me to see things from different perspectives. For example, I wanted to see and understand for myself the challenges which the homeless community in Kuala Lumpur were facing on a daily basis and also the effectiveness of the efforts to feed them and to help them.This involved going down to places like parts of Chow Kit and Kota Raya to talk to several people who were made homeless for various reasons.
I wanted to understand why the preservation of the water catchment area here was instrumental to providing a clean and consistent water supply to Penang via the Muda River. Not only did I understand the issue better after visiting Ulu Muda and the nearby areas, I also experienced the unique flora and fauna in one of the most enchanting places in Malaysia.The methods by which I try to understand national issues have evolved over time.
Together with my colleagues at REFSA, I have published several articles on how to manage the Covid-19 crisis better from a public policy perspective.The experience of having been in government has allowed me to have access to industry contacts as well as former colleagues in the civil service, including from my previous ministry and agencies.
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