February 26, 2019

I met up with Mr. Torbjorn, the Norwegian Trade, Industry and Fisheries Minister at the Norwegian Embassy reception. HE Ambassador Gunn introduced us and we had a good chat about trade, palm oil and politics. We also talked about my trip to Oslo last year on human rights and standing committees.

However I bonded most with the Secretary General of the ministry, Ms. Mette Wikborg. We both had a feeling that we met somewhere before and after eliminating Oslo and Singapore, we found out that we both went to UWCs for high school, different years and different schools but the same movement. This really is a small and strange world.

February 20, 2019

Hi guys! Tina here! As you may or may not know, our office is currently writing a follow up paper on standing committee reforms in Malaysia.

As I was doing some desktop research earlier today, I came across an interesting document published by the UK Parliament. Long story short (for details, stay tuned to our upcoming paper), a separate and independent body, IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standard Authority) is tasked with the setting and regulating of MPs’ salaries, claims and so forth. On its website, it publishes all of the travelling claims made by IPSA Board members.

And on the document, you can see that many of the travel claims made were for travelling via London underground and many of the claims were a mere 2.40£ per travel.

(Fun fact: Its Board members are allowed to air travel ONLY IF it is unavoidable and THEY MUST FLY ECONOMY CLASS. Accommodation expenses are also capped at a reasonable rate.)

This is something that we hope Malaysia could eventually move towards – where our government and elected officials are accountable to the taxpayers and do not make unnecessary lavish travels.

You can download the full document on this page: https://www.theipsa.org.uk/…/b…/board-remuneration-expenses/

February 12, 2019

Here are some updates regarding the ongoing repair works for schools in Parliament Subang.

Over the CNY holidays, another repair work had been completed using the funds that our office provided to the PIBG of the school. Here are the before and after pictures.

February 11, 2019

Prior to this, representatives from LITRAK Group came to see us regarding this issue and we wrote letters to the state government requesting for an update. We have now received a reply from the Selangor Menteri Besar’s office.

Basically, the MB’s office cc-ed our letter to the Mayor of MPSJ for her further action. And as such, we shall continue to follow up on the matter with the Mayor.

Here is a picture of the reply.

February 1, 2019

On Wednesday night (30th January 2019), I gave a 2 hour talk on the thorny matter of lack of reforms followed by a q&a with the Catholic community of Kinrara. It was really good to get to know my new constituents. They had very good questions and views. I want to thank the Church of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, Father Albert and Bridget for being gracious hosts.

On Thursday night (31st January 2019), together with YBs Sivakumar and Steven Choong, I attended the dinner hosted by the Cuban Ambassador HE Ibete and her charming husband Jose. Ibete showed my some great art work from Cuba and her strong Cuban coffee is most excellent (but kept me awake all night). I was appointed chair of the Cuban Malaysian MP friendship group about two months ago. We discussed geo politics and in particular Venezuela and the US sanctions on Cuba. In return, I have extended an invitation to HE Ibete to give a talk in Parliament when we sit again in March.