PETALING JAYA, JUNE 7- Newly elected Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli said he would take a different approach in his constituency as opposed to his predecessor, former MCA president Ong Tee Keat.
“I will carve my own niche. I don’t think people will compare me with Ong. There is a lot of goodwill for me there but that is pressure on me,” he told FMT.
In the general election, Rafizi won the Pandan seat after defeating MCA’s Gary Lim with a majority of 26,729 votes.
Ong, who was a three-term MP in the constituency, was not fielded this time around.
Rafizi, who is also PKR strategy director, said that Ong practised “old-school” politics in Pandan where the latter relied heavily on government funding to serve the constituency.
“But I will be the complete opposite. I’m going to initiate a lot of programmes by getting the community and volunteers to participate in it.
“There are a lot of things we can do without relying much on government funding,” he said.
Rafizi added that he would open his service centre twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, in order to address people’s problems in the area to the best of his ability.
He also said that he is in the midst of coming up with an online system, so that people could lodge complaints via the Internet and monitor his performance from the comfort of their homes.
“I put myself in the voter’s shoes. I want people to know what I am doing and what are the issues I raise in Parliament as well,” he said.
When pointed out that some parts of his constituency fall under the purview of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), Rafizi joked that he would apply “charm” on the officers to get things done.
“It’s going to be tough. A lot of yelling, letter writing and banging on doors,” said Rafizi, with a chuckle.
However, Rafizi said that he believed there are hardworking officers in DBKL who are willing to work with anyone for the benefit of the community.
“I’m sure there are officers whom we deal with on a day-to-day basis who are reasonable. If I treat them fairly, I’m sure we can get things done,” he said.
Voice of check and balance
On issues he would raise in Parliament, Rafizi said that he would continue to be a voice of check and balance on the nation’s financial and economic management.
“I am also concerned about young people and their development. Educational reform is something I am passionate about,” he added.
Asked if he supported calls by certain quarters to establish English medium schools, Rafizi replied in the negative.
“As much as I look urban, I come from a village and was educated in a national school,” he said.
He explained that the education system must cater for the most vulnerable in society.
“For that, I believe that a national education system that caters for the majority of students is still the best way, not creating more mediums just to cater for a select group of people.
“If we have too many schooling mediums, we will segregate students and lose focus on fixing the real problems,” he added.
The real problem in the national education system, Rafizi pointed out, was that not enough was being done to upgrade the curriculum and the quality of teachers.
He said that if the two problems are rectified, the quality of English mastery among students would be resolved.
“And I am a living evidence of that. I learned the most basic grammar from a Malay school and I was taught by a Malay teacher.
“She was very good teacher and she managed to teach us the basic foundation in English, which we took forward to the next level,” he added.
