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Staff Member 01

Updates from taipei – part 3

6th of August – Good morning from Taipei. The sun gets up very early here, around 5.45 am. I have been awake since then and working on the conference notes.

I have a few sideline meetings lined up, one with the Solomon Islands MPs who are interested in anti-corruption reforms. I will be making a recommendation on unexplained wealth legislation. While at home, this policy has fallen on deaf ears, I hope my islander friends will consider my recommendations more seriously. I also have another sideline meeting with Taiwan officials, to discuss price control mechanisms of domestic goods. In Taiwan, they do not focus on price control mechanisms, but have an anti-stockpiling approach. This Taiwan approach is public policy genius at work!

Overall, I will be discussing climate change SDG 13 to the Pacific islander MPs. All of these islands are extremely vulnerable to coastal erosion, rising waters and negative impact to their fish stock (mainstays of their economies are tourism and fishing).

Japan is going to bring up the subject of Indo-Pacific security. However my simple 2 day assessment with other delegates, seems to indicate that they don’t think much about the big “geo-political” issues. Their primary concerns are very much localised to climate action.

As such, I think the geo-political matter will not be the hot topic. Instead climate change will take precedence and dominate in the conference here. This is good for me, since I have been focusing on climate change for the last 4 months. This conference will give me first hand climate impact knowledge from MPs from these Pacific islands.

Back at home, I understand that my Subang constituents are facing the issue of the KESAS u-turn closure on 10th August. I was contacted by YB Michelle on Sunday, when I landed in Taipei, and I helped her with contacts to the deputy minister (Anuar Tahir) and minister of works (Baru Bian). I have also instructed my professional volunteers James and Ho (civil engineer, local housing expert) to assist her on technical issues.

So last night, James gave a briefing to YB Michelle and MPSJ councillors at JKP Zon 4 hall. I have been informed that the issue of the temporary closure of the KESAS u-turn has been postponed for the time being by the minister. Postponement is good, but we still need a longer term solution.

As for the multiple Poh Toh events in Kinrara, Mr. Leong, my chief volunteer and whom my officers and interns fondly call the 2nd boss, has been dilligently attending on my behalf. Some people say he looks a bit like me! Mr.Ho and Mr. Gabriel are also on standby to represent me in my absence.

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