HIS years of serving as a humanitarian doctor in the remote villages of Borneo and crisis-hit countries worldwide led Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii to swap his scrubs for politics, in a bid to change healthcare policies.

“I used to work in a hospital, and I’ve seen with my own eyes the healthcare needs of the people.

“It’s a basic need for every citizen,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Dr Yii was in Parliament recently to get his measurements taken for a custom-made suit for him and other first-time lawmakers to don for the swearing-in ceremony tomorrow.

The Kuching-born 31-year-old, a former parliamentary assistant to ex-Stampin MP Julian Tan and special assistant to Sarawak Pakatan Harapan chairman Chong Chieng Jen, was fielded as one of DAP’s new faces in the May 9 polls.

Dr Yii defeated Barisan Nasional candidate Kho Teck Wan with an impressive 35,973-vote majority.

Prior to the elections, Dr Yii had volunteered to do humanitarian work for eight years, later serving as director of civil society organisation Malaysian Medical Fellowship, where he provided medical aid to villages in Sabah and Sarawak.

He has been on humanitarian missions to many countries in Asia, including Myanmar, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and India, as well as Malaysia. He was also part of the medical relief team that went to the Philippines during Typhoon Haiyan, and Kathmandu in Nepal during the earthquake there.

“I was involved in a lot of humanitarian work, where we provided free healthcare to the poor, in different countries in Asia. So from there, I began to see how the policies of nations affected people, especially the poor,” said Dr Yii.

The graduate of Russia’s Volgograd State Medical University became a DAP member in 2015, but had been volunteering with the party since 2013, and was involved in civil society work.

He said the experience of being a practising doctor prior to joining politics helped shape his agenda.

“As much as we can treat one patient, one by one, and this is a good thing, which is something I promote and encourage – however, a good healthcare policy can affect the whole hospital, the whole state, the whole nation.

“This was one thing that gave me a whole new perspective on politics, and why I wanted to be part of it and have an influence in the field of politics.”

He said while Malaysia’s healthcare system is “one of the best in the world, in terms of accessibility and affordability”, there are glaring flaws in the implementation of policies.

“(There is) wastage and, to a certain extent, corruption.

“A lot of allocated funds that were supposedly meant for hospitals, for clinics, even for the people, are being wasted because of middlemen and lopsided contracts.

“At the end of the day, the people suffer. The people are forced to receive less.”

Apart from the review of local and national healthcare policies, Dr Yii said he will join other lawmakers from Sabah and Sarawak in pushing for the setting up of a special committee to review all legislation regarding the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

“We need to fight back and return full rights to our state.”

As a first-time MP, Dr Yii said he hopes to “start a good culture”, where opposition lawmakers are treated fairly and given opportunities to air their constituents’ grievances.

He said being part of the “New Malaysia” means instilling better democratic practices in Parliament, including allowing opposition lawmakers to fulfil their responsibilities to their constituents.

“We shouldn’t allow them (the opposition) to be treated the way we were treated before, because we are starting a new culture.

“And, we will make sure the opposition doesn’t have to experience what we had to in the past.” – July 15, 2018.