WHEN Maria Chin Abdullah decided to contest the Petaling Jaya parliamentary seat in the 14th general election, she armed herself with a manifesto championing national issues.

Among the pledges were to call for a royal commission of inquiry into the electoral system and a living wage of RM2,500.

But just days after winning the urban seat, the former Bersih 2.0 chairman was hit with a reality check.

Her constituents have swamped her temporary office in Jalan Gasing, Petaling Jaya, asking her to solve problems related to education, poverty, citizenship and transportation.

These issues were not in her manifesto.

What shocked her the most was that there are 86 national schools in her constituency, with 13 in need of critical repairs. Adding to this is the fact that there is no budget to carry out repairs in schools.

Maria said these schools are in the affluent area of Petaling Jaya, and the district education officer had told her that they had not been receiving allocations to carry out repairs.

“I went to see a (national) school that’s more than 50 years old. It’s in a very bad state and needs a lot of support.

“Their science labs have no water pipes. When they (students) carry out their experiments, they have to use buckets to fetch water to the science labs. It has been like this for many years,” she told Malaysia Decides.

Maria and Bukit Gasing assemblyman R. Rajiv visited the school, SMK (P) Taman Petaling, with the Petaling Utama district education officer.

Senior teachers also complained of leaking roofs, broken doors, and wiring and termite problems.

“If you talk about the quality of education, structurally, it’s not even a conducive environment (for students to study in),” said Maria.

She has alerted new Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik to the problem.

Meanwhile, stateless children born to Malaysian parents, and residents of low-cost flats in Petaling Jaya have also approached the former electoral reform and women’s rights activist for help.

“A lot of people don’t have MyKad or are holding green ICs that I didn’t know existed. (A mother brought her) son who is already 20 years old, (but he had received) no education.

“It was the same with another 7-year-old boy. He hasn’t been to school because his birth certificate states that he is not a citizen. Both his parents are Malaysians, Indian Malaysians. There is a bureaucratic disconnect.”

She has contacted Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to look into their plight.

Maria added that she knows there are pockets of poverty in Taman Medan, Lembah Subang and Kg Lindungan.

She is eager to borrow a method from Penang to improve the quality of life of residents of low-cost flats, most of whom are blue-collar workers with a monthly household income of RM2,500 or less.

“Penang has tried out this participatory approach with some PPR (People’s Housing Project) flats, where the community takes charge to clean up (the flats), decide on the budget, take ownership of how they want to run the flats.”

The mother of three will have to set aside the promises in her manifesto – for now.

She has to deal with some 140,000 constituents who have even more pressing needs, something she had not bargained for when she took up the challenge to be a federal lawmaker. – May 25, 2018.