(From left) Dr Loo Cheng Wee (Warisan) and Dr Jaya Chandran (Perikatan Nasional) will be contesting for the Klang Parliamentary seat in GE15.
KLANG: The race for the Klang parliamentary seat has become a very hot tussle with seven hopefuls vying to represent one of Selangor’s most populous districts in the august house.
Among the seven are two doctors who believe the royal town was ailing and they were the best persons to treat it back to health.
One of the doctors, Perikatan Nasional’s Dr P. Jaya Chandran said, in reality, Klang should be a very well developed and prosperous town given that it was home to three of the nation’s main ports.
"But what do we have here instead? High cases of dengue, flood prone areas and poor irrigation," said the general practitioner who ran four clinics in various other locations in the Klang Valley.
Dr Jaya Chandran, a former MIC member who joined Bersatu in March this year, said he would open his fifth clinic in Klang soon.
The 47-year-old father of two children aged 14 and eight years old said he would also push for the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) to be divided into two entities – MPK South and MPK North for better management of the town if he won the election.
"This is crucial for Klang to be better managed and I will also push for another general hospital to be built here as Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR) is insufficient to handle the inflow of patients," said the Klang Bersatu associate wing chief.
Meanwhile, Warisan’s Dr Loo Cheng Wee, 59, said his main grouse in Klang was the major problem with cleanliness.
"This is something I want to tackle and solve so that Klang residents will be able to enjoy better and cleaner living conditions," said Dr Loo who ran a general practice and an addiction clinic in Klang with his Sabahan wife Dr Theresa Yep.
Dr Loo added he had the solution to rid Klang of its issues related to cleanliness and hygiene and was currently on the lookout for a conduit to implement them.
His other pet peeve was the incessant flooding Klang suffers whenever there was a heavy downpour.
"My vision is to build more lakes in Klang so that there are extra outlets for water to flow into whenever it rains heavily," he added.
The father of three children aged 29, 26 and 24 said he had left the DAP in 2021, after being a member for 20 years, and joined Warisan because he believed it (Warisan) was the right entity to build a nation for all Malaysians regardless of colour and creed.
"Somehow I have a lot of faith in our president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal’s vision for the nation.
"I also believe political parties and elected representatives should make serving the people their main priority as opposed to focussing extensively on opening more and more branches to supply them with votes during party elections," said Dr Loo, who was an MPK councillor from 2018 to 2020 under the DAP ticket.
Dr Loo narrated how he had put forward many proposals to enhance Klang during his tenure as an MPK councillor but unfortunately, he had received very little support from his then party leaders.
However, he felt that he had finally been given a second chance to realise these plans through Warisan.
The other candidates vying for the Klang seat were independents Hedrhin Ramli and Deepak Jaikishan as well as Barisan Nasional’s Tee Hooi Ling, Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s S. Chandrasegar and Pakatan Harapan’s V. Ganabatirau.
