For Ting, she takes on people’s problems as her own in order to effectively resolve their issues.
GOPENG: “People’s problems will become yours. If you cannot handle this, you cannot be the people’s representative,” says GE15 candidate Cally Ting Zhao Song.
Ting speaks from experience. As Gopeng MCA vice-chairman, she has been operating service centres here in the past four years managing the locals’ issues.
The full-time politician and mother-of-two says her previous Putrajaya stints as special assistant to International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Datuk Lee Chee Leong and Education Deputy Minister Datuk Chong Sin Woon stands her in good stead in her service to the community here.
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ting launched the Cally for Community and Cally for Education programmes – distributing food aid to the needy as well as laptops and smartphones to students in Gopeng.
Ting, 32, is Barisan Nasional’s candidate for the Gopeng parliamentary seat. She will face Tan Kar Hing (PKR/Pakatan Harapan), Muhammad Farhan Abdul Rahim (Bersatu/Perikatan Nasional) and G. Balachandran (Warisan).
Gopeng which has more than 143,000 voters (42.89% Malays, 44.83% Chinese and 9.57% Indians) is a constituency with an ageing population.
“A lot of the older folks here don’t have people to care for them because most of their offspring have gone elsewhere to work,” laments an elderly man who was on a morning walk around his neighbourhood.
“To the young people, there is no career prospect in Gopeng,” he adds.
To retain the next generation in Gopeng, Ting believes that job creation is essential.
“Factories, big and small ... setting up plants in Gopeng would create jobs and keep the people from moving out,” she says.
She points out that light industries and tourism are the main economic pillars here. She envisions Gopeng as a sustainable business hub, where improved infrastructure supports the expansion of industries to bring in high-value jobs – such as recycling companies and agricultural projects with minimal waste.
“We need investors to come in. We can work with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority to bring in investment and create good jobs,” says Ting who majored in journalism with a minor in political science from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Bayan Baru needs immediate remedies to pressing everyday issues, says Saw.
In Bayan Baru, Penang, Barisan candidate Saw Yee Fung from MCA opines that the people need immediate relief for pressing everyday issues.
Born and bred in Bagan on the mainland, Saw, 33, knows her state well. She has identified flash floods, traffic congestion and affordable housing still beyond the reach of the B40 as among the problems plaguing Bayan Baru’s more than 119,000 constituents – of which Chinese make up 47.8%, Malays 38.8% and Indians 12.2%.
An office worker in Bayan Baru concurs: “A brief rainfall will result in flash floods in a lot of areas here. This has been an issue for more than 10 years despite the flood mitigation project by the state government.”
With such issues affecting the constituents in the present, Saw asserts that solutions in the short term should be given as much attention as the state’s proposed mega projects, such as the reclaimed islands and the light rail transit system.
Saw, 33, who was private secretary to former Women, Family and Community Development Deputy Minister Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, faces incumbent Sim Tze Tzin (PKR/Pakatan), Oh Tong Keong (Gerakan/Perikatan), Jeff Ooi (Warisan), Ravinder Singh (PRM) and independent candidate Kan Chee Yeun in a six-corner fight for the Bayan Baru parliamentary seat.
The actuarial science graduate from Universiti Malaya, who has a master’s degree in economics, says she has long-term economic development projects in her Bayan Baru Transformation Plan.
For the nation, she wants to champion the Fiscal Responsibility Act – the proposed Bill that aims to improve the accountability of public expenditures and to curb wastage of funds.
