OUT of three candidates vying for the Petaling Jaya parliamentary seat in Selangor, former Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah has the clearest plan for reform.

On top of endorsing the Pakatan Harapan national manifesto, Maria launched her manifesto two days ago outlining the five agenda she would champion in Parliament: a clean and fair government, living wages for a comfortable standard of living, equality and justice for women, empowering youth, and development and environmental justice.

The former electoral activist promised to lobby for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to review Malaysia’s electoral system and another RCI on local elections, if elected into government

“Pakatan (Rakyat) tried to revive the local elections in Selangor and Penang in 2010. It’s time to restart the conversation,” she said in a press conference during her manifesto’s launch.

She added that it is high time for the government to ensure individuals earn a living wage of at least RM2,500 a month, especially in urban areas like the Klang Valley.

Petaling Jaya itself still has a high concentration of low-income families struggling to cope with rising cost of living, said Maria.

The mother of three also vowed to push for improvements in the country’s education system and open learning centres for underprivileged youth.

As a women’s rights activist, Maria also pledged to push for more laws to curtail gender discrimination and provide leadership training for women to participate in politics.

The civil society representative contesting on a PKR ticket also promised to champion environmental issues and speak out against harmful development policies.

“We have to change our lifestyle. It takes time but it’s possible. Sweden took almost 20 years and now it’s reaching the stage of zero waste,” said Maria.

In comparison, her competitors: Petaling Jaya MCA organising secretary Chew Hian Tat, 42, a food exporter, and former teacher, Noraini Hussin from PAS, 53, did not come out with a personal manifesto on top of their coalition’s manifestos.

Chew said should he be elected, he would work with the Transport Ministry to alleviate traffic problems for Petaling Jaya residents and create more job opportunities for youth by promoting the Digital Free Trade Zone promoted by caretaker prime minister Najib Razak.

“PJ is an ageing city, so we need to attract more industries (to attract the youth),” he said when met at the nomination centre this morning.

When asked how he planned to defeat Maria, Chew said he had no special strategy, adding that he did not know he would become a candidate until a day before the official announcement earlier this week.

“Win or lose, I’ll continue to provide service to the people. I joined MCA because I like their spirit of charity,” said the businessman.

Meanwhile, Noraini said PAS has pledged to abolish the goods and services tax (GST) and National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) debt for youth to alleviate the people’s suffering due to the rising cost of living.

“There are people who are so stressed out by the cost of living that they have even considered suicide. This is the biggest issue of the people. We’ll increase taxes on the rich to makeup for the shortfall in abolishing the GST,” she said.

As a former city councillor in Shah Alam, Noraini is also worried seeing more youth skipping school to play games in cyber cafes: “We must make sure they stay in schools.”

PKR won the Petaling Jaya Selatan seat, now known simply as Petaling Jaya, by 5,706 votes in 2008 and 19,216 votes in 2013. – April 28, 2018.