AMID the politicking on both sides of the divide in GE14, Malaysia Decides is focusing on what parliamentary candidates will stand for and what they rate as the country’s most urgent problems. We ask them five questions about their role as federal lawmakers, if they are elected.

Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) vice-president Huan Cheng Guan, 57, has been one of the most vocal critics of the Pakatan Harapan-controlled Penang government. He has lodged several reports against the state’s undersea tunnel project with the national anti-graft agency. Now, he will take on caretaker chief minister Lim Guan Eng in the latter’s parliamentary seat, Bagan.

Huan, a former MP for Batu Kawan, was also once vice-president of Gerakan, a Barisan Nasional component party. Before he quit Gerakan to form PCM, he had been suspended for raising grassroots issues.

Besides Huan and Lim, other candidates for Bagan are MCA’s new face Michael Lee Beng Seng, and Malaysian United Party’s Koay Xing Boon.

Q: What will you fight for in Parliament?

Huan: There is no point going into that now. I haven’t won the seat yet. But I have been raising issues in Penang. People know that I am outspoken and blunt… a firebrand. If I return to the Dewan Rakyat, I will be like that too.

Q: What are the three most urgent problems in the country?

Huan: Unity, the economy, and the people’s welfare.

Q: What is the solution?

Huan: We have many MPs in the Dewan Rakyat playing politics. They don’t raise major issues. Half the Dewan Rakyat is crazy… they quarrel and fight at Parliament, which doesn’t benefit the people. They promise to do this and that but in actual practice, all they do is condemn each other.

I think after the election, both the winner and the loser must sit and talk to work out amicable solutions to the people’s problems. The government and the opposition have to work together for the betterment of the people.

Q: What is the state of the nation?

HCG: Like I just said, we have too much politicking.

Q: Why should voters pick you?

Huan: I am a simple man who is frank and blunt. I am not against anybody. I want people to know the real issues, like the scandals in Penang. Take the undersea tunnel project for example. Who owns the company involved?

I want to expose issues, like how the state government sells off state land. The late chief minister Lim Chong Eu left land for the state, but how much of it do we still have? We also have environmental concerns. With all the land reclamation projects, Penang Island has lost its turtle shape. With all these concerns, I want to speak up for the interest of our future generation. – April 29, 2018.