1 Pusat Khidmat Kelana Jaya – e-newsletter Issue#3, JULY2014 WONG CHEN Letter to the Constituents Dear Residents of Kelana Jaya, My office will endeavour to publish a newsletter once every six months. This is our third newsletter to you, covering the period of 1 st Jan 2014 to 30 th June 2014. Much has happened in the last six months. In the last newsletter, we printed our 2013 year end accounts for all to see. In the context of the tight budget that we operate our office, we have to be practical in how we allocate our limited resources and attention. My office has three primary functions. The main focus is to support my Parliamentary work on national issues, policy debates and law making. This part of my work is often not known, but we consistently produce position and policy papers on economic matters. The second focus is to serve the constituents in solving their problems, the bulk of which are welfare cases. The last function is to engage the community by organising dialogues and events, and also attending as many functions, gotong royongs, makans and get-togethers to meet the rakyat. In the last six months, my team have been processing a lot of welfare cases. In Seri Setia, in particular in the areas of Desa Mentari and Desa Ria, we have an estimated 1,000 extreme hardcore poor families and another 10,000 families living on less than RM1,500 a month. This being the case, I have decided to cut out all unnecessary expenses like, “majlis makan,” for festivities and redirect 60% of my allocated budget for welfare. At the time of this newsletter, we have paid out RM111, 855.40 and processed some 221 individual welfare cases. These supports are mere short term band aids. There are long term solutions to urban poverty; better health and better housing. For the children, better education. I have written an urban poverty policy paper on this to the Selangor government last year but unfortunately it appears to have fallen on deaf ears. On other Selangor matters, I have also been critical of the Menteri Besar’s handling on multiple water related issues, the Canal City deals, the JAIS and MAIS actions, and now on Kidex. On programs, we did three community dialogues with Hannah Yeoh and two dialogues on my own. My office also organised a successful breast cancer screening day for 150 women in Desa Mentari. I also attended and gave speeches in 73 events in the last six months. Now I usually prepare my speech in my mind whilst driving to the next event. I also participated in 6 gotong royongs. I usually don’t do weddings but 5 of these were just Contents: 1) Letter to the constituents 5)Social Welfare Cases 2) Community projects 6)Meet the new interns 3) Fundraising 7)Member of Parliament and ADUN’s office 4) Exclusive interview WONG CHEN KELANA JAYA CONSTITUENCY e-NEWSLETTER ISSUE 4 July 2014
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1 P u s a t K h i d m a t K e l a n a J a y a – e - n e w s l e t t e r I s s u e # 3 ,
J U L Y 2 0 1 4 WONG CHEN
Letter to the Constituents
Dear Residents of Kelana Jaya, My office will endeavour to publish a newsletter once every six months. This is our third newsletter to you, covering the period of 1
st Jan 2014 to 30
th
June 2014. Much has happened in the last six months. In the last newsletter, we printed our 2013 year end accounts for all to see. In the context of the tight budget that we operate our office, we have to be practical in how we allocate our limited resources and attention. My office has three primary functions. The main focus is to support my Parliamentary work on national issues, policy debates and law making. This part of my work is often not known, but we consistently produce position and policy papers on economic matters. The second focus is to serve the constituents in solving their problems, the bulk of which are welfare cases. The last function is to engage the community by organising dialogues and events, and also attending as many functions, gotong royongs, makans and get-togethers to meet the rakyat.
In the last six months, my team have been
processing a lot of welfare cases. In Seri Setia,
in particular in the areas of Desa Mentari and Desa
Ria, we have an estimated 1,000 extreme hardcore
poor families and another 10,000 families living on
less than RM1,500 a month. This being the case, I
have decided to cut out all unnecessary expenses
like, “majlis makan,” for festivities and redirect
60% of my allocated budget for welfare. At the
time of this newsletter, we have paid out RM111,
855.40 and processed some 221 individual welfare
cases. These supports are mere short term band
aids. There are long term solutions to urban
poverty; better health and better housing. For the
children, better education. I have written an urban
poverty policy paper on this to the Selangor
government last year but unfortunately it appears
to have fallen on deaf ears. On other Selangor
matters, I have also been critical of the Menteri
Besar’s handling on multiple water related issues,
the Canal City deals, the JAIS and MAIS actions,
and now on Kidex.
On programs, we did three community dialogues with Hannah Yeoh and two dialogues on my own. My office also organised a successful breast cancer screening day for 150 women in Desa Mentari. I also attended and gave speeches in 73 events in the last six months. Now I usually prepare my speech in my mind whilst driving to the next event. I also participated in 6 gotong royongs. I usually don’t do weddings but 5 of these were just
Contents:
1) Letter to the constituents 5)Social Welfare Cases
2) Community projects 6)Meet the new interns
3) Fundraising 7)Member of Parliament and ADUN’s office
4) Exclusive interview
WONG CHEN KELANA JAYA CONSTITUENCY e-NEWSLETTER
ISSUE 4 July 2014
2 P u s a t K h i d m a t K e l a n a J a y a – e - n e w s l e t t e r I s s u e # 3 ,
J U L Y 2 0 1 4 WONG CHEN
politically unavoidable. To give proper context to my weekends, I work every Saturday and somehow managed to secure a solid 21 Sundays just for my family in the last 6 months. Whenever I miss out on time with the family, I try to spend most non Parliament weekday mornings, working from home. In my Parliamentary sitting in March 2014, I took part as one of the main speakers on the GST debate. Despite efforts to pressure the government to abandon and/or reconsider, the GST looks set to come in force on 1
st April 2015. A
lot of you may not see GST as a regressive tax but in the Malaysian context, the GST is in fact an additional tax. Most GST implementations usually have reciprocal tax cuts but in Malaysia, UMNO-BN intends to raise RM20 billion more from the rakyat. There is no commitment to a zero tax gain policy. In other words, come 2016 when GST is in full flow, each person (from baby to grandma) will be paying an additional RM900 a year to the government. So, if you are a family of 4, you will be paying an additional RM3,600 a year via the new GST. This is on top of your current direct and indirect taxes paid. In the last 6 months, I have continued to focus on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). During Obama’s visit, I met up with the US Trade Representative Michael Froman (it was our third meeting to date). I sensed that the TPPA is picking up pace in tandem with the geopolitical skirmishes in the East and South China seas. Be that as it may, I am still unconvinced that the TPPA will benefit us economically. I have not seen any real evidence or solid data that supports a happy outcome for Malaysian industries. Instead world renowned economist Ha-Joon Chang warns of the dangers of free trade to developing and smaller nations that require protectionism to build internal capabilities before competition. More alarming is my assessment that the government and our major industries and businesses are blissfully unprepared for it. The coming months up to year end may be crucial. MPs from both sides may be called to debate on this all important matter. Lastly, in this June 2014 Parliamentary sitting, I took on the Finance Minister/PM Najib on the matter of the IRB Funds. I exposed the Finance Minister’s intention to form an investment panel within the IRB, and this fight made national and international news. Ultimately, the government withdrew the bill. This is my single biggest achievement to date as your Member of
Parliament. This victory will spur me to remain vigilant and continue to protect the interests of the rakyat. To stay in touch with my thoughts, works and events, you are invited to follow me on facebook at: www.facebook.com/wongchenpkr.
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My office has a policy of not organizing open houses for festivals or holidays as we have a limited budget, and many needy people in our constituency. Instead, we try our best to use the allocation on infrastructure repairs and community events that will offer some kind of health or educational benefit to the constituents of Kelana
Jaya.
Visit to Science Centre On the 27
th of March my office organized a trip
during the March school holidays to the National Science Centre for children from the Desa Mentari low cost flats. A group of 40 children and their chaperones from Blocks 3 and 5 attended the day trip. The children had a lot of fun playing in the wading pool at the Science Centre in the morning before heading into the Science Centre to explore and learn. I was able to meet with the children at the beginning of the day before heading off to
Parliament for the day’s session while my staff supervised the trip for the rest of the day.
Breast Cancer Screening We organized our first breast cancer screening on the 4th of May for Blocks 4, 5 & 6 of Desa Mentari in collaboration with the Breast Cancer Welfare Association. Our target was to screen 75 women, but at the end of the day we screened 150 women.
During the screening two women were found to have lumps, and we were able to offer them a follow up screening and check up at University Hospital.
Community Projects
1: The children in the butterfly park at the Science Centre
2: The group at the Science Centre
4 P u s a t K h i d m a t K e l a n a J a y a – e - n e w s l e t t e r I s s u e # 3 ,
Desa Ria We have been looking at different ways to rejuvenate the Desa Ria low cost flats. The first phase of our efforts involved the clearing of 98 blocked sewage drains in January and February of this year. However, this is a short term solution as the sewage pipes are too small for the density of the population. The long term solution is to completely replace the current pipes with bigger ones. The next phase of our project involves replacing the metal staircases that are in total disrepair due to the theft of the metal railings by drug addicts and general wear and tear. Our office came up with the solution of using brick to avoid the theft problem and to ensure the staircases remain structurally sound. My office is pledging RM 20, 000 towards this project.
4: My volunteers and I with the tender documents for our staircase project.
I have mentioned before that the budget allocated by the state government for running my office is RM 50, 000, while community work is allocated RM 100, 000. I receive no allocation for developing my constituency from the Federal Government. However, it has recently come to light that Barisan National MPs receive RM 1 million a year to for developing their constituencies. To compensate for this deficit, my office conducts fundraising throughout the year to help with office costs and our community projects. For the first quarter of this year we held a movie fundraiser on the 27
th of March. We sold tickets
to the premiere of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and raised a total of RM 12, 003.80 from ticket sales and cash donations.
If you would like to contribute to our office, please find the details below.
Fundraising
1: YB Hannah Yeoh officiating the breast screening event
5: YB Hannah Yeoh, Captain America and Myself at the
5 P u s a t K h i d m a t K e l a n a J a y a – e - n e w s l e t t e r I s s u e # 3 ,
J U L Y 2 0 1 4 WONG CHEN
An exclusive interview with Wong Chen, Parti
Keadilan Rakyat, Member of Parliament for
Kelana Jaya, Selangor, 20 June 2014.
Q. On 12 June 2014, you broke the story of a new
investment fund proposed via amendments to
the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) Act. What was
this all about?
The current Inland Revenue Board (IRB) Act allows
the IRB to create a fund called the IRB Fund to
make investments. The proposed amendments by
the Finance Minister sought to create an
Investment Panel to replace the IRB’s powers on
all investment matters. If the amendments are
passed, the IRB will give away its investment duty
and powers to this proposed Investment Panel.
In addition, the amendments sought to expand the
Investment Panel’s power to invest in any type of
investment as long as it is approved the Minister of
Finance (currently PM Najib) including IPOs. The
amendments are peculiar because the IRB is a tax
collection agency and not a sovereign wealth fund.
What was even fishier: the amendments propose
that the Minister of Finance be given direct and
indirect powers to appoint 6 out of 7 members of
the Investment Panel. The inclusion of the
Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia (the central
bank) as the 7th member, was a dead give-away
that this fund would not be a small thing but likely
to be a multi-billion Ringgit fund. Why else would
the Governor be called to such duty?
Q. Who did you discuss your concerns about the
amendments to the IRB Act? Who was most
interested?
I spoke to a professor of public policy, who is a
world renowned expert in fiscal matters. He was
very surprised to hear about this approach. Within
the party, I consulted with Rafizi Ramli (MP for
Pandan) as this was a matter of national
importance and he has a strong corporate and
management accounting background. I alerted
several Malaysia financial news editors and
international ones including the Financial Times,
Asian Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. Most
importantly, I contacted the international rating
agencies. I thought they would be interested as it
is a national fiscal issue, where tax revenues could
be tapped at source and the Finance Minister
could pursue more off budget projects. My
immediate suspicion was that this looked like the
proposed formation of the next 1MDB. In fact, the
IPO clause might have seen the IRB Fund also
being used to invest in the soon to be listed 1MDB.
Q. What was Barisan Nasional’s rebuttal or clarification? Do you accept what they say?
Three days after my press conference, the 2nd Minister of Finance made a statement, which was reported in Sin Chew that that no tax revenue would be used by the Investment Panel. He said that the IRB Fund would only comprise of moneys from 1.5% on tax revenues after deducting salaries, bonuses and operating costs of the IRB.
First, an important digression. This is the first time
the BN government has confirmed what everyone
has been suspicious about, that the IRB is being
incentivized by a commission rate to collect more
tax. According to the Minister, the current
commission rate is 1.5% of total tax collected. We
must remember that 1.5% rate is not law and it is
not fixed by legislation. This rate could vary on
executive orders, up or down.
Let me illustrate the point. This year the IRB
targets to collect RM140 billion in tax. IRB will be
paid a 1.5% commission rate on the collection; i.e.
thus for 2014, the IRB will get RM2.1 billion for its
operations and investments. There are 11,000 IRB
staff. Do the math and you will see that for each
officer, RM190,000 is spent on them for
operational costs, salaries, bonus and investments.
That’s why the IRB officers have been working
extra hard.
Now back to the Minister’s point on the IRB Fund.
The Minister is saying that the IRB Fund will come
purely from the 1.5%. So after deducting salaries
Exclusive Interview
6 P u s a t K h i d m a t K e l a n a J a y a – e - n e w s l e t t e r I s s u e # 3 ,
J U L Y 2 0 1 4 WONG CHEN
and bonuses and operating costs, the leftover is to
be used for investment. So how big is this leftover?
In 2011, (this is the latest figures publicly available)
the IRB Fund for investments stood at RM255
million, all in fixed deposits with licensed banks.
So what the Minister basically said is that I was
wrong in my allegations and that the Fund will
continue to be relatively small at around RM255
million and that this is not a 1MDB sized type of
fund. That this IRB Fund is merely a small fund for
officers of IRB and thus not a big deal.
What the Minister said is not the full story. When I
first read the bill, I saw the genius of the drafting
for these amendments. Whoever drafted this is
one smart fellow. The current section 23 of the
Act, allows the IRB Fund to increase in size not only
from internally generated commissions alone. So
the IRB Fund is not just about the 1.5%
commission.
Furthermore, it states that the IRB Fund could
increase by way of receiving grants from the
Finance Minister. The IRB Fund could also load up
on debt. This really raised the eyebrows of senior
KL bankers that I spoke to. The IRB Fund could also
increase in size by virtue of a catch all phrase of
“all other moneys lawfully received”. In other
words, legally the Minister of Finance can increase
the IRB Fund into the multi-billions.
That is the genius of the amendments, if you slack
off as a lawmaker and just read the actual
amendments, you will miss out the full picture.
The key is to read the whole Act and put in context
these amendments to the current sections. I read
with great alarm that the IRB Fund could be the
next 1MDB by using the existing section 23
combined with the formation of the Investment
Panel and the powers to invest in anything under
the sun.
Look, if the fund is really so small as stated by the
2nd Finance Minister, the Bank Governor will not
get out of bed to attend an Investment Panel
meeting. If the IRB Fund is so small, why go
through the trouble of legislating to create an
Investment Panel, why not just appoint a Chief
Investment Officer in the IRB. Why must the
Finance Minister take the trouble of making sure
he has powers to appointing 6 out of the 7
Investment Panel members? Lastly, if the
amendments are harmless, why did BN withdraw
the bill?
Q. Barisan Nasional has the numbers in Parlimen
Malaysia to vote en bloc to approve any bill or
amendment. Why do you think they held back
from pushing through the amendments to the IRB
Act?
Good question. Yes, BN has more than 51%
majority (they have 60%) and could have easily
pushed it through. What stopped the Finance
Minister? Well I spoke to several BN backbenchers
and urged them to be ready to do the right thing if
push comes to shove. I also spoke to the Public
Accounts Committee members and they were very
concerned.
However Malaysian politics is extremely partisan.
When push comes to shove, even the most
“concerned” backbenchers will vote for the
government. Since I started my term last year, I
have not seen any BN backbenchers ever vote
against the government. No abstention even. Not
even during the vote on the new ISA provisions in
the Prevention of Crime Act (PCA). I remember
vividly how MCA had publicly said that they will
vote against the PCA bill and a few days later, I saw
all of the MCA MPs sheepishly stand to support
the PCA bill. In other words, I don’t think Najib will
7 P u s a t K h i d m a t K e l a n a J a y a – e - n e w s l e t t e r I s s u e # 3 ,
J U L Y 2 0 1 4 WONG CHEN
give two hoots to what MPs like me think about his
IRB amendments. I also don’t think he cares much
for the views and opinions of his own
Backbenchers.
So, I suspect the real reason why Najib withdrew
this controversial bill must have something to do
with questions raised by international financiers
and rating agencies. PM Najib has proven to react
and retract positions if it has international
repercussions. This matter was picked up by
Malaysian financial papers as well as international
newswires. So when it comes to the international
finance types, he sits up and listens.
Q. Since you’ve been in Parlimen Malaysia, how
many times do you think Barisan Nasional has
pulled back in this way?
I can remember only once. The Prevention of
Crime Act (PCA) was withdrawn when the heat
was on. It was then reintroduced with superficial
amendments in the following Parliamentary
session and was just steamrolled through. So it is
very important that we remain vigilant on this IRB
bill when Parliament sits again in October. We
need to start a solid campaign in September.
After almost a year of serving as Member of Parliament in the Kelana Jaya, I have seen the true depth of urban poverty in my constituency. There are many factors that cause and compound poverty, and with my limited resources there is not much that I can do to make a sustainable impact. We do what we can and hope that our efforts will make a difference in the long term. While in the beginning of my term I decided to discourage giving out welfare payments, I have since changed my policy. Our office has been processing an increasing amount of welfare cases in the last few months. Here are some of the notable cases. Malarvilze is a mother of four with another baby on the way. When we met Malarvilze and her husband, Ramakrishna, they were surviving on Ramakrishna’s salary as a lorry driver of RM 40 a day. They initially came asking if they could get a grant to start a business. We decided to give them RM 300, and pass Ramakrishna’s resume to our
contacts in the Sunway Group. This resulted in Ramakrishna getting a better paying job. One of our constituents also stepped forward to donate school bags and stationery for their four children. Che Su is a mother of three from Desa Mentari. Her eight year old daughter was scheduled to have open heart surgery, and her family was having difficulty bearing the costs. We gave her RM 1,000 to help with the medical costs. Hemawathi is 28, but has a disability that prevents her from walking. She must pull herself on all fours to get around. She is supported by her father who earns RM 1, 000 as a lorry driver, and this is the family’s sole source of income. This family received RM 300 from our allocation. Malikka is unfortunately a typical case in Desa Mentari. She previously worked as a factory worker, and now makes money as a cleaner. Her children are grown up and do not help her with her expenses, and since her husband passed away, she is solely dependent on her income from cleaning houses. She also has difficulty walking after breaking her legs in an accident. We gave her RM 300. Photos of some of the people we have aided are
below.
Welfare Cases
8 P u s a t K h i d m a t K e l a n a J a y a – e - n e w s l e t t e r I s s u e # 3 ,
J U L Y 2 0 1 4 WONG CHEN
As promised, we held a dialogue session after the
latest parliamentary session, for anyone in Kelana
Jaya who wanted to attend.
The dialogue was held in the Dewan Serbaguna, in
SS5a/15 Kelana Jaya on the 21st
of June.
The dialogue sessions are an opportunity for you
to find out what occurred during the
parliamentary session, what bills or issues were
debated on and to find out from the primary
source where PKR and I stand on issues.
This session we spoke about the Inland Revenue
Board issue, GST and the future of the country
with GST, the Selangor water crisis, the Trans
Pacific Partnership Agreement, and the suspension
YB Surendran from parliament.
Recent Dialogue
9 P u s a t K h i d m a t K e l a n a J a y a – e - n e w s l e t t e r I s s u e # 3 ,