My 'Merdeka Action List'

ON THE eve of our 64th national day, I know that many of you are feeling uncertain about the future and probably not the ‘mood’ to celebrate our “Merdeka” or independence day.

The daily number of COVID19 cases are still worryingly high, including in the Klang Valley, where more than 90% of the estimated adult population have been vaccinated (although the number of ICU admissions have decreased, thankfully).

Rather than issuing a statement wishing everyone a Happy Merdeka, I thought that I would issue my own Merdeka Action List (Senarai Tindakan Merdeka) which is my list of 10 Merdeka action items which I will undertake from now until the end of the year.

I would encourage you to do the same so that you have something to work towards and something to look forward to.

For those who are fortunate enough to be in positions to help others, please continue to do so whether it is creating much needed jobs in this economy or giving out food baskets to the needy in your community.

“With great power comes great responsibility, with small power comes small responsibility and we all are responsible to each other, in ways great and small.”

1) Mobile Vaccination in my area targeted for the B40 and especially for the undocumented migrant community.

While the vaccination rate among Malaysians in the Klang Valley is very high, there are still pockets of people, especially undocumented migrants, who have not yet received even their first dose of any of the COVID19 vaccines.

In a survey exercise I conducted last week together with various groups such as the Malaysian Red Crescent, the International Office for Migration (IOM), UNHCR and WHO and NGOs (such as Project Liber8) at a low-cost apartment complex and a nearby commercial area, we managed to find more than 100 persons mostly from the undocumented migrant community who have yet to be vaccinated.

I will work with the relevant authorities at the federal and state governments to provide mobile vaccinations for those who for various reasons are not willing or able to go to the vaccination centers (PPVs) that allow for appointments or walk-ins.

My team of staff and volunteers have worked very hard for the past two months to distribute food baskets and fresh food to Malaysians and non-Malaysians in my parliamentary constituency including 3,000 food baskets, 14,500 kg of fresh vegetables, 3,800 kg of fresh fish, 300 chickens and 1,700 kg of rice.

Moving on, I am trying to find new and more sustainable ways to provide healthy food to the needy in my constituency.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to get in touch with Dr Billy Tang, the man behind PWD Smart Farmability1, a social enterprise which aims to provide fresh fish and vegetables (for a start) to the B40 community in a sustainable manner.

For example, fresh vegetables are provided via custom made terrarium boxes where the vegetables can be harvested and regrown for up to one year! Only watering is needed!

Thanks to sponsors and donors such as EP Plus Healthcare Group2, Dr. Billy Tang and his organization provided 50 terrarium boxes with different kinds of vegetables to the needy in my constituency.

My team and I will work with Dr Billy Tang and his team to monitor the usage of these boxes by the recipients over time.

Many businesses have closed either for good or temporarily during this pandemic.

As the number of cases decrease, especially those which require hospitalization, due to the national vaccination program, many businesses will re-open and new businesses will also be created.

I hope to do what I can to help those who have lost their jobs, especially from the B40 community, to find new jobs.

One of the main challenges of helping the B40 community find jobs is the lack of knowledge on how to use job sites.

Even though there are now job sites which focuses more on blue collar jobs such as https://www.maukerja.my/, https://www.ricebowl.my/ and https://my.jawatankini.com/job.php?q=&l=kajang, low IT literacy may still be a hurdle for many in the B40 communities to use such websites.

I hope to reach out to the management and tech teams for some of these job sites to see how more user-friendly features can be provided to make the job application process simpler.

At the same time, I will also use more ‘manual’ ways to pair potential employers with those who have lost their jobs especially at the blue-collar level including many of the factories in my area which are still looking for employees with the caveat that they must be able to provide decent accommodation to workers.

4) Improving living conditions for factory workers and foreign labourers

One of the major challenges faced by factory owners in Malaysia and particularly in the Klang Valley is the poor accommodation arrangements where many workers, especially foreign labourers, are squeezed into cramped apartments and houses, which then makes it very conducive for COVID19 to spread.

Hence, the preponderance of “factory clusters”. I have been appointed by the Menteri Besar of Selangor to the Special Committee on Health Control and Compliance for Industry (Jawatankuasa Khas Pematuhan Kawalan Kesihatan Industri / JKK PKKI) which has the mandate to propose policies to decrease the spread of COVID19 among factory workers.

Following the work of the Prevention of Outbreak at Ignition Sites or POIS initiative3 under the Selangor state government which has also been adopted by MITI under the Safe@Work program 4, the focus should now be shifted to the accommodation of the factory workers in addition to the workflows at the factories.

This would require the cooperation of the local authorities to implement the circular issued by the Ministry of Housing and Local government on the 23rd of March 2021 which allows for various arrangements for temporary worker housing to be approved including in commercial areas such as shoplots and also on site at factories with spare land to build hostels.

PLANMalaysia, a unit under the Town and Country Planning Department, has also issued a detailed FAQ on the 2nd of June 2021 on various aspects and issues to do with applying for this temporary approval.

I have also received applications from shop lot owners and property managers who are interested in converting their 2nd and 3rd story shop lots which are currently unoccupied into temporary hostels for workers, especially factory workers.

Each local authority in Selangor is still working out the details on how to process and if appropriate, to approve, these applications.

Allowing the conversion of these shop lots into temporary workers accommodation would serve various purposes. Firstly, it would make it easier for factories to comply with Act 446 (Amendment) 2019 on Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities which most factories are not complying with at the moment.

Secondly, it would make it easier for factory owners to separate their workers into different accommodation and work streams in case a group of workers test positive for COVID19.

Thirdly, it would help property owners rent out commercial units in a manner which is legal and safe.

This kind of work requires coordination across the different local councils in Selangor and I will be working with the local councillors in the city councils where demand for such accommodation arrangements is the highest as well as the Selangor EXCO in charge of local government, Ng Sze Han.

5) Helping various industries open up safely and bounce back stronger

After three Movement Control Orders, many businesses need the economy to open up safely in order for them to survive.

I have been advocating for a few specific industries which I believe can open upsafely and have already shown that they have the proper SOPs in place to operate as safely as possible with COVID19 in our midst.

This includes the cinema chains which has shown that physical distancing and minimal social interaction is possible when watching movies.

This includes gyms, swimming pool operators and badminton hall operators which operated safely during the period between MCO 2.0 and 3.0 without the presence of any clusters associated with their activities.

Further down the road, outdoor sports events should also be allowed starting with small scale events to show that such events can be organized safely and then allowing larger scale events to take place with strict SOPs.

I hope to utilize a newly refurbished 400m track in Bandar Baru Bangi to organize a small scale 5km time trial with different “wave” of runners taking part over a weekend.

I hope that this can be done together with the cooperation and endorsement of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the police as well as the local authority (in this case, Majils Perbandaran Kajang or MPKJ).

I am confident that the running community as well as the outdoor event service providers such as those which provide timing equipment and services, mobile toilets, cones, online registration portal and potential sponsors would be happy to participate in such a “test” event.

6) Using the MPKj Stadium in Bandar Baru Bangi for more running and training activities

I completed the refurbishment of the 400m track at the MPKj Stadium at Seskyen 15 Bandar Baru Bangi in April this year using a special allocation from the Pakatan Harapan government.

In addition to replacing the 400m track, 8 spotlights have also been installed for use of the track at night. (The lights are left on until 10pm at night every day before MCO 3.0).

I hope to procure a few more track equipment items such as hurdles so that athletes (including state and national athletes) can use them for training purposes and state and national level competitions can be organized here.

Since my announcement of my offer of pro-bono consulting services to those who may need it back in June 2021.

I have been fortunate enough to enlist the help of more than 15 volunteers from various industries to assist me in this initiative.

Collectively, we have spoken and given our consulting advice to more than 20 companies covering sectors as diverse as a hotel in Langkawi to a company which specializes in manufacturing bitumen related products to a pre-school in Petaling Jaya.

While our collective efforts are drawing to a close, I will still continue to provide assistance to various companies and industries on how to “build back better” and “open up stronger”.

For example, I strongly believe that the travel and tourism industry needs to work with the insurance sector in Malaysia to put out to the market different travel insurance products which takes into account that COVID19 is endemic and will be here to stay for a while.

This kind of effort requires facilitation and discussion among various Ministries and government agencies as well as the private sector.

I hope to be able to play a constructive role in such facilitation efforts.

8) Continuing to provide Internship opportunities to young people

During the past 3 months, I have been fortunate to have 13 interns working with me on various research and constituency related projects.

They have covered many topics and areas in their research from researching US ambassadorial appointments in the region to compiling a list of best-selling OXIMETER brands to looking at various implications of non-extension of the COVID19 relief bill to helping compile list of recipients to receive food baskets, I believe they have benefitted from their experience.

I have also benefitted from my interactions with them through their ideas and idealism. I will continue to provide internship opportunities for those who want to work with me and my team to do groundwork in my constituency and to research on and advocate for various national issues.

It is easy for young people to feel disconnected to the political process and to be disillusioned with politics because of the feeling that politicians are just fighting among themselves to secure positions and privileges rather than to help the people.

I think one thing should be made clear to the young people of Malaysia during this COVID19 crisis which is that if we have bad leaders in our country, the policies (and the SOPs) that they come up will have a significant and negative effect on the lives of everyone in the country from those who are going to schools and colleges and universities to those who are looking for jobs or trying to hold on to their existing jobs.

To have a say in who are elected as leaders in this country, we must be registered to vote which means that we have to encourage more young people to register to vote.

During the past year or so, the overall number of voters in the country have actually DECREASED because COVID19 has prevented physical voter registration exercises from taking place and online registration has not really picked up yet.

Those who have died during this one and a half years have not been replaced by the younger generation registering to vote.

I hope to work with more NGOs such as BERSIH and UNDI18 to encourage more people to register online to vote and also to do more physical voter registration exercises once they are allowed.

10) Helping out in N24 Semenyih state seat

Finally, I will be assisting the outreach efforts in the state seat of N24 Semenyih which is under the Hulu Langat parliament seat because the position of caretaker or “penyelaras” for this seat has been given to DAP.