Jelutong: Vote for Jeff Ooi!
Apologies to Hafiz for slacking in my promise to do write-ups on the blogger candidates for this election. Got caught up with other things recently.
Anyway, to catch up, let’s turn to DAP’s brand spankin’ new candidate for the parliament seat of Jelutong: Jeff Ooi! Mr Jeff Ooi Chuan Aun is an IT analyst who started a popular blog, Screenshots some years ago. I’m not sure whether it was Malaysia’s first politico blog, but it sure became one of the most read.
Jeff was formerly a Gerakan member but switched to DAP after he was disgusted by Gerakan’s subservience and tolerance to BN’s bullying. Mostly though, Jeff has said that he was appalled by Gerakan’s betrayal of its original vision of a ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ (non-race base national identity). As an example of this, the current Gerakan candidate line-up consists only of Chinese candidates, with totally no Indian or Malay ones. It is especially disconcerting on the absence of Indian candidates, as Gerakan formerly commanded quite a healthy Indian support base.
Although originally from Selangor, Jeff has been moved by DAP to contest in a Penang seat for strategic reasons in its attempt to capture the state.
Jeff has discussed a wide variety of socio-political issues on his blog in the past. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that he has sources within government departments who trust his integrity enough to feed him with malpractice exposures. However, Jeff has always protected his sources in recognition of their courageous decisions to confide in him.
Jeff has also been a pioneer of new-age politics. Apart from disseminating information on his blog, he has recently done some online fund-raising successfully. So far through internet banking and Paypal, he has raised in excess of RM100,000 in about a week just from his readers and supporters online! This could be a new way for Opposition parties to bypass the govt’s restrictive laws to get their funding in the future.
Anyway, the good folks of Jelutong now have the great opportunity to send a genuine ‘public servant’ to represent them on the 8th! Just do it guys!
Sigma therefore endorses wholeheartedly the candidacy of Mr Jeff Ooi for Jelutong.
