Tee Keat soldiers on – with or without MCA

By Teoh El Sen - Free Malaysia Today

KUALA LUMPUR: Politics aside, former transport minister and ex-MCA president Ong Tee Keat is a down-to-earth kind of guy.
That's why these days, the Pandan MP has been going to the ground to serve not only his constituents, but also the public at large, living up to his new catchphrase: "My commitment is to the people. It remains unchanged."

Ong is steadfast in this public duty despite talk that he could be dropped as an MCA candidate in the Pandan seat in the next general election.

In the last of a three-part interview with FMT, Ong said he now has more time to go back to, and focus on, the type of community work that he loves doing all this while -- with or without the support of his party.

He said he is now using the NGO platform – notably Yayasan Bakti Nusa – in spearheading more community programmes of late.

Ong is continuing his efforts in HOPE (Higher Opportunities for Private Education), an initiative to help students who failed to get into public universities to obtain places at private universities at subsidised rates.

He is also launching another project called TRAIN (Technical Resource and Internship Network), a vocational training programme for school leavers and dropouts.

Apart from his popular weekly mobile clinic project in Pandan, Ong also recently started a baby hatch project to save abandoned babies and a “city survival” programme to help women cope with urban living.

Of late, Ong is spending more time indulging in his hobby – reading. He has also taken up a new "job" as a columnist for several news outlets.

Below are excerpts of the interview:

FMT: Since your departure as transport minister, how have you been spending your time in your Pandan constituency?
In the past months since I left, I've been spending more time in my constituency doing community work largely conducted by Yayasan Bakti Nusa Malaysia.

I am still playing the role of executive adviser to Yayasan Bakti Nusa (an NGO formed more than 10 years ago). On top of that, of late, I have just started my column for the Malay, Chinese and English media. On and off, I also find time to pursue my hobby -- reading. Not just politics but also memoirs of celebrities, especially political celebrities. That is how I spend my time.

Can you elaborate more on these 'NGO activities' by Yayasan Bakti Nusa?
When I was serving as a deputy minister some years ago, I had conceived the idea of enhancing access to local university education. Through a programme known as HOPE (www.hope.org.my), we have formed a committee to monitor the intake of 16 private universities. If they still have excess seats available, we will help students who failed to gain entry into public universities to enrol in anyone of these private institutions. Their subsidised tuition fees are comparable to those of public universities. Thus, we are offering a second chance to those who didn't get into public universities.

So this HOPE programme is still ongoing?
Yes it is. We introduced this on Jan 1, 2007, with the 16 participating universities. To date, we have more than 1,000 students sponsored under the HOPE programme.

So this is really something close to your heart?
Yes, certainly. Now we are undertaking a second phase: we are taking in SPM and UEC students instead of only STPM students. (The UEC exam is for Chinese independant schools.) For those students who can't afford the subsidised rate, we can assist them to apply for the government-sponsored National Higher Education Fund Corporation loans.

There is another initiative of yours called TRAIN (Technical Resource and Internship Network). Could you tell us more about this?
TRAIN is not train coaches. But it is a new manpower or vocational training programme specifically meant for dropouts or school leavers. We know that the dropouts will not be taken in by government-run vocational schools which require an SPM qualification. But dropouts, especially those who don't have adequate proficiency in Bahasa Malaysia and English, are the people left in the lurch. TRAIN (www.train.org.my) provides courses to enable them to acquire entrepreneurial skills so that they can secure a better livelihood.

I am going to launch a new phase after Hari Raya. Some of the courses are conducted in Mandarin, some in Bahasa... it depends on the needs of the students.
What we want to make sure is that the early school leavers have a platform to acquire the necessary skills in a language they are comfortable in. Because if you were to conduct courses in a language they don't understand, it will defeat the purpose.

Where is TRAIN based and how many students do you have?
This is just the beginning... when we enter the new phase, it would be more realistic for us to announce the figures. So far, we have managed to take in more than 200 students. Currently, TRAIN is based in the Klang Valley, but we want to have more training personnel to join us.

How and why were HOPE and TRAIN conceived?
I was prompted to start these two programmes as a result of my own personal experience. When I was 13, I nearly became a dropout and joined the child labour force. This was because my dad suddenly passed away.

Those days we needed to pay school fees and we struggled. I had gone through all this with my brother so I know it is extremely challenging. My elder brother was a dropout and throughout his working life as an electrician, he never got his skills certified just because of his lack of proficiency in Bahasa and English. He is now retired.
So, you may have the working experience, but you still can get nowhere. I have seen enough cases like this in our community. I wanted to make sure this was changed.

As for HOPE, when I served as the MCA Youth chief, every year without fail, throngs of students came to us to seek our help because they couldn't get into local public universities. We have to register their names and bring up their cases to the authorities. But I don't really believe in fighting endless battles, so I started HOPE.

Where does the funding of these projects come from?
We started from very limited funds. We don't have the hard cash to meet the demands of each and every person. But the participating universities are subsidising; after all, we are using their excess, unused seats and they had agreed to do this as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility or community service inititiative.

What other programmes are you working on?
I started two other social intervention programmes for women and children. First is the city survival programme meant for women and second is the life-saving project for abandoned babies.

Are there many baby-dumping cases in Pandan and why are you teaching women about city survival?
Not only in Pandan but also in the greater Kuala Lumpur and Ampang Jaya. When I thought about these two programmes, I had in mind not only Pandan but also the country as a whole. It is going to be a series of nationwide programmes. This is not going to be a political (undertaking) but based on humanitarian grounds. It is imperative for us to do something about this.

We are focused on life-saving because we don't want to get embroiled in age-old polemics of whether it is moral or immoral to abandon babies. Suffice to say, we are concerned about saving lives.
As for city survival, women need to learn to be more streetwise and be given sufficient knowledge and information on the latest developments in the crime scene.

Is this your own brainchild or are you getting help from the MCA, or is this strictly NGO work?
I would say that is my brainchild. At the same time I am aided by my NGO friends, who would often engage in a brainstorming session with me over lunch.
When I was vice-president, I brought these programmes to the MCA, but I must admit that at that material time, it did not seem to attract much attention from the MCA leaders.

With or without their participation, we managed to kickstart this programme without any financial aid from the government. But I did not brag about this.
Also, in each constituency, we have a committee under the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development called the Council of Welfare and Social Development (Mayang). I am the chairman of Pandan Mayang. When I am asked time and again if I would party-hop, I would answer that my loyalty is to the people. When I say this, it's not platitude and neither is it rhetorical. I mean business. Even without a ministerial post, I won't give up my endeavours. These are my brainchild. I have to work them out and give them a new lease of life.


How about your mobile clinic project, how is that coming along?
Every Sunday morning without fail, our mobile clinic with doctors and nurses has been going round from community to community in Pandan since February this year. This is for the urban poor, especially the low and middle low-income groups.
We could see that residents in apartment or flats are responding positively. In just a few hours, we could have a crowd of about 200 people. Sometimes it could rise to 400 and so we have to extend our time.

We are planning to start another mobile clinic. When we talk about the urban poor, we can go on talking all day, but we also need such an intervention programme. I spend at least one hour at each stop. Sometimes I just put on my jeans and walk in and talk to the waiting crowd. Through this programme, we even managed to identify some of the common problems of the people living in the same area. Sometimes it's linked to local concerns such as the quality of drinking water.

Do you find any problem serving your constituency without holding any national post in both the party and the government?
Of course. Without the ministerial portfolio, fund allocations under the minister's quota would definitely be taken away from me. Now I work within the bounds of limited funds in my constituency. But that has in no way dampened my commitment to serve the people in Pandan.

Are you working on anything to raise funds?
Fundraising for a backbencher would not be as easy as you think, compared to a minister's effort.
At this juncture are you involved in any businesses?
No. When I say that I need to spend time and need to focus on my work, I really mean it. There's no such thing as part-time business or being a part-time boss. And I don't believe in half-heartedness in doing things.

Would you be confident of a win if you were given another chance to contest this parliamentary seat?
Well, of late, there has been speculation that I would most likely be dropped as an MCA candidate for the Pandan seat. I am keeping my fingers crossed... My commitment to serving the people remains unchanged.