SERDANG, April 25 – At 70, Datuk Yap Pian Hon is the oldest candidate from the MCA and considered one of the oldest candidates that the Barisan Nasional (BN) is fielding in the May 5 polls. But this is not a deterrent for the Serdang parliamentary candidate. Instead, he is all charged up by his motivation to serve the people and reclaim the seat from the opposition.
“Age is not a factor to tie you down as long as you want to and are ready to serve the people. Look at our friend, (DAP national chairman) Karpal Singh. He is on a wheelchair and yet he is respected and this shows the democracy in this country.
“We cannot insult him. Someone said I’m old, how about a 25-year-old? (referring to Keranji state candidate Danial Wa Wai How, the MCA’s youngest
“Does he have enough experience too? We can’t count on age, as long as you have the right attitude and are sincere to serve the people,” he told Bernama in an interview at his office here.
The veteran politician will face the DAP’s election strategist, Ong Kian Ming, in the election. Except for the 1978 polls, Yap had retained the Serdang constituency from 1969 until 2008 when he was not chosen to contest.
He stood in the then Serdang state seat on a DAP ticket in 1969 and from 1974, under the BN banner. In 1978, he lost the seat to the DAP’s Lee Lam Thye. The Serdang state seat was upgraded to a parliamentary seat in 1995.
“After the defeat in 2008 which saw almost a total wipe-out of MCA, especially in Selangor, I told myself that I had two choices — whether to give up or continue to work,” Yap said.
Despite not being nominated as a candidate in that election, he quickly pooled his staff together and got back to work the ground.
“I immediately made myself available and my service centre became the contact point for MCA and the community. We never lost touch with the locals.
“Since 2008 until now, I had held more than 500 small group meetings and gatherings with various segments of the community,” the Selangor BN publicity chief said.
Yap, who considered himself a true-blue Serdang native, having lived there his entire life, is a familiar face among the residents.
“We can easily go to him and tell him our problems. He is like one of us and still helped us although he did not stand last time,” a 67-year-old noodle stall operator in Jalan Besar, known only as Chin, said.
And that sums up exactly what the residents, the majority of whom are petty traders or managing traditional family businesses, here want — an elected representative who is not only present but will also reach out to them. No rhetoric and no sweet promises needed.
“We want a local man. Simple, because it’s practical and convenient. If he is an outsider, he won’t be around much, so what is the point? How and where can we find him if we need some problems to be resolved,” Chin added.
The Serdang parliamentary seat has 133,265 registered voters, 48.6 per cent of whom are Chinese. Malays constitute 39.6 per cent, Indians (11 per cent) and the rest are other ethnics. The DAP’s Teo Nie Ching defeated Hoh Hee Lee of MCA with a majority of 21,025 votes in 2008.
BERNAMA
