FUNNYMAN Dr Jason Leong put on a more serious hat last night when he hosted and facilitated an online one-on-one with Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh over dinner, streamed Live via the comedian’s Facebook and YouTube platforms.
The more than one-hour discussion touched on a wide array of community issues ranging from vaccination to women and domestic abuse, among others.
In addition, audiences were given a chance to understand what a-day-in-the-life of an elected representative looks like.
Takeaways from the ‘A Conversation with YB Hannah Yeoh’ below...
The reality of the lockdown
Generally, Yeoh notes that the work of an MP is different every day. However, the current setting of the pandemic and the lockdown has allowed for very little programs to be conducted physically, “but the phone in our office is as busy as ever”.
“We get a lot of vaccine enquiries from our residents (in Segambut) and are working at compiling information of those (the elderly especially) who are bed-ridden and cannot go to vaccine centres so easily,” said the MP.
“Apart from that, matters concerning food distribution are also at the top priority.
“There is still a lot of planning being done for this given the conditions of social distancing SOPs where people are not allowed to gather. A lot of thought must be put into the logistics as it concerns safety,” she added.
Yeoh shared that food security is often the challenge faced by people that survive on odd jobs, and affected by the SOPs, “... which prevents them from going out, and earning a living”. As a result, they do not get the usual daily income that helps them sustain their livelihoods.
“We have community representatives active at keeping a lookout for individuals/families that are struggling.
“For instance, I’m very thankful that the residents’ association(s) within the area I represent works closely with the office to share in the effort of doing whatever we can to help.
“These RAs are very proactive, and they have independently purchased food baskets for us to distribute.
On why the initiatives are not driven more visibly by the government, the MP responded to Leong’s question: “I accept the fact that elected representatives are meant to be the immediate help”.
“The question of having food baskets (on a national scale) has been something that we highlighted since MCO 1.0 to present minister Rina Harun, but we still are not seeing it enough.
“Of course, there are claims that the struggling families have gotten them, but we are still seeing a number of families that don’t.
“The amount of people coming in requesting assistance from the elected leaders (majority forming the opposition) shows that maybe the distribution is not widely extensive."
As a former deputy minister shadowing the current affairs today
Further adding on to the topic of community well-being and security, Yeoh believes that NGOs are the real backbone of the society.
“They are on the ground, helping to mobilise the aid regardless of political inclinations, and I say this based on a humbling experience,” she said.
Yeoh went on to explain that swiftly after the 'Sheraton Move', when opposition MPs were not considered in the budget allocation and there was a growing uncertainty that loomed, there was one non-profit body that helped her office in providing community relief aid without any questions asked.
“The representative said to me that they understand our given situation (of not having budget allocations) and just went with the donations for the benefit of community well-being.
“That, to me, is how an NGO should support an elected representative in exercising their role,” expressed the MP, noting that the work can be more impactful and extend further if there is a collaborative relationship established.
“We are quite lucky that we do not hear people dying of hunger in Malaysia yet, but if it was not for the NGOs that are available today, I am sure you would have heard many cases already,” stated Yeoh.
“Hence, we need to make sure we support them well, which means our SOPs today must not be difficult for them to conduct their work.
“Never mind that the government is not able to help them directly in the operations but do not block them from going out there to provide the assistance the intended communities need,” she stressed.
According to the MP, many of these NGOs do not have the right papers and were told to get approvals from Miti, “... but there are a lot of confusions still on the ground” that stops these non-profits from the needed community relief activities.
Voicing out her concerns on the lack of policy planning among ministers today, she expressed: “Ministers are paid salaries to not do what the NGOs are doing or what normal people can do.”
“There is a reason why you are paid a minister’s salary, and it is to fix policies,” Yeoh emphasised.
“With the current MCO where no events can take place, you (ministers) should utilise the time to call for meetings on Zoom, have it more frequently, and get to the policy planning.
“It only takes a minister with ministerial powers to fix policies. Stop doing ‘lawatan’ because this can be done by just about anybody,” said the MP.
“Do what you are supposed to do because there are actually a lot of problems that can be fixed but the attention on this is not visible enough. This is the most frustrating part.”
Have there been enough measures to curb abuse at home?
Yeoh reminded the audience tuning in that when the first MCO took place, the Talian Kasih was – temporarily – suspended (a helpline for vulnerable groups) much to her dismay.
“A lot of people came out with statements as a result before it was then reinstated back again.”
Before the 'Sheraton Move', Yeoh highlights that there was a call made for a domestic violence committee to be established where “… it was for members to meet up regularly to exchange data concerning domestic abuse.”
“A lot of people suffer in silence because it involves a family member who is an aggressor or perpetrator.
“Victims are usually reluctant to lodge a complaint because they do not have the awareness on how to(s). But mostly it is also because they do not know the result. For example, if I am an elderly woman who wants to lodge a report against my son who hits me, I want to know the aftermath – what will happen to my son? Where would the authorities bring him?
“This is why it is important to give people a clear picture, and the assurance of such cases,” she said.
“It’s also the reason why NGOs, as I mentioned, are great partners in helping the vulnerable where the reach is more extensive.
“At a time like this, we must really work with them closely, and listen to their data because it could well be more accurate than government data.
“People are afraid to call the police (authorities) but the women’s aid organisation for example may have a greater overview of things because they are seen as less threatening,” Yeoh added.
One success that was pointed out by her in curbing domestic abuse, “… is when MKN used their SMS broadcast to blast out the information of informing people to not suffer alone.”
“Now that we are at the third lockdown, my concern personally is not on the data that we have received, but on what we do not know,” said the MP.
“When you have children suffering in silence, you are unlikely to hear their cries. This question has been playing at the back of my head – how many other calls are we not receiving?
“When it comes down to it, we really need to rely on the public (neighbours/relatives) participation as well.
“If you see a pattern, do not wait until it is too late to complain. Pick up the phone and call, a knock on the door by the police may help deter unwanted tragedy from happening,” reminded Yeoh.
“Do not forget about the case where a young boy in Melaka passed away due to this.
“The sad fact is that the neighbours actually saw the kid prior to his death standing in the compound looking really sad.
“So, I feel that we need to pay attention to our surroundings and as a society, we need to do more to be the voice or help the vulnerable.”
Navigating social media, the colourful fights and internet trolls
“I wouldn’t call the engagements on social media as fights,” shared Yeoh, recalling the interactions she received online, where some can be deemed as unpleasant.
“When it comes to navigating the social networking spaces while exercising your role as an MP, people should first understand the difference between a government rep and an opposition rep.
“As an opposition MP, there are people that want us to be more vocal, but there are also people who want us to stop scolding the government of the day. They would much prefer us to work together or do their (the government’s) job without much say.
But at the end of the day one must know that when being in the role of the opposition, if we see something that is not right, we have to speak up.
“In doing so, many of the things we post are instant because we do not have an admin to manage our accounts. To some extent, I suppose that is good.
“What I have noticed is that Twitter is where I get news – the latest update of the discussions in Malaysia. Often, the platform is the first to break things,” Yeoh shared on which of today's social networking platforms she mostly prefers to engage with the general public.
“People there are also very informed and there is a behaviour of audience where they will study the timeline of a person’s history (said and expressed) including the engagements (like and share) if said person is trending to fact check.
“There seems to be more homework done and probing into the topic behind a tweet more. Because of this, the credibility of the information you see is higher compared to ones on other platforms. Twitter seems to be the platform,” she said, noting it is more democratic where reasoning can prevail.
“When I read a tweet responding to me and feel like something is not right, I would click on the account to see when it was last created because the government has a budget to establish basically accounts/profiles to defend its position.
“If I start to see a lot of 2020/2021 accounts with shares/retweets from the recent year or carry messaging from a certain minister, then I know that the type of information I received is biased.
“This method is important because it is able to help inform me on the position of the account in question, whether I should filter out and ignore or determine that the query directed is in fact legitimate and I need to respond."
Confidence on the vaccination rollout
Detailing that most enquiries on vaccination rollout have come from the elderly, Yeoh highlights that there is still a big gap when it comes to senior citizens and technology (the Internet).
“These groups of people do need the attention of us educating and empowering them with the tool to stay updated and informed.
“I feel like in a time of pandemic, we have to make sure that we don’t only follow one method when it concerns public health.
“There needs to be a more thorough procedure so that everybody is included given their respective limitations and knowledge capacity, so no one is losing out on getting vaccinated,” she said.
“Recently, I tweeted that there is no perfect system, you can have an appointment procedure that is well and good, but maybe we should also consider a fast track system at least for the elderlies.
“If there is a concern when it comes to overcrowding, I would suggest separating the appointments weekly and have a proper broadcast of calling those born between a certain year to come and walk into the vaccination centres that are designated to cater the elderly groups.
“If you phase it out and provide all kinds of platforms for this vaccination, I don’t think we will be facing problems when it comes to confidence in our national vaccination program or calls for a decentralisation of the process,” added Yeoh.
In Malaysia, the MP notes one key tool that the authorities are not utilising well enough that could help in making data entry and collection more seamless.
“Our MyKad, which is supposed to be a smart card, is not used to its full potential.
“At the moment you only use it to show identification when passing through certain residence areas for security purposes, which I think is a great wastage.
“A classic example of a problem that can benefit greatly with the usage optimisation of MyKad is in the community relief efforts.
“We do not even know if the support is distributed evenly/widespread enough like whether a family has been receiving 10 times more compared to other similar families living with the same condition.
“If you have this data collected in MyKad, it can help manage things better and more orderly," she added. – The Vibes, June 4, 2021
*Follow the discussion further on Jason Leong’s YouTube channel here:
