Hee is happy, but her voters are not

By Clara Chooi

IPOH, Feb 6 — Jelapang assemblyman Hee Yit Foong, once termed as “the most hated woman in Malaysia”, is a very happy person these days. Following her controversial defection from the DAP last year, she was under constant scrutiny and many spiteful things were said about her. But time heals all wounds and she finds life quite peaceful now.

In fact, she finds this such a precious commodity that she refuses to speak of the past one year. When approached by The Malaysian Insider for an interview, Hee, though smiling and friendly, shook her head vigorously and said: “No, no, I do not want to talk about all this anymore.”

More than anything, Hee is apprehensive about the probable repercussions she would have to face if she revisited the days that led to the infamous power grab of Feb 6, 2009.

“I do not want to say anything. I am afraid that whatever I say, they (the Pakatan Rakyat) will take it and use it against me one more time. I do not want that to happen. Not now. I am happy and things are good for me,” she told The Malaysian Insider.

Of the three “frogs” whose defections from PR parties led to the fall of the Perak PR state government, Hee was probably considered the most villainous of them all.

Things are looking good for a happier Hee these days.

The other two defectors were Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Changkat Jering assemblyman Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu, both formerly of PKR and both former state executive councillors.

At the time, Hee had reportedly been unhappy with the leadership of the DAP for a number of reasons; that her grouses were not being taken seriously, that she had not been given a voice in the state government and even that she had not been given a new Toyota Camry, which the PR government had bought to replace the ageing fleet of Proton Perdanas.

Hee’s decision to leave the party and side with the BN was looked upon as childish and selfish and irked the electorate in her constituency, which is known to be a DAP stronghold.

In the March 2008 general election, Hee won the Jelapang state seat of 26,157 voters by a 6,707-vote majority. She went on to become the state assembly’s deputy speaker, the first handicapped person to hold such a position in the country.

“Yes, I did suffer very much that time. But it was no problem, for people did not come up to me and scold me to my face. I just hear about it through others or through the media. But it is different now,” she said guardedly.

After Hee’s defection, she stayed away from her service centre in Jelapang for over one month for fear over her safety. Angry at their representative, Hee’s constituents staged protests and even signed a petition, calling for her to vacate her seat. Hee, however, stood her ground.

She said she goes back to her constituency as often as needed. “People are okay with me, I will always be there to help my constituents,” she said.

Hee said that the focus of her service was always to aid the elderly and the underprivileged. “At the end of the day, an assemblyman is still an assemblyman. It does not matter who we support because the most important thing is that we serve the people. To me, this is important. I do not wish to play politics anymore,” she said.

But what do her constituents really feel about her? Since Hee’s abrupt departure, the DAP has formed the Jelapang Service Team (JST) to take care of her constituents.

Team chairman Frankie Wong told The Malaysian Insider that the team worked round the clock to ensure that Hee’s constituents continued to receive good service.

“She is nowhere to be seen because she is still afraid to come out and meet the people. I have one full-time staff and two part-time staff working for our team. Our office is in town itself, just near the market,” he said.

Wong added that the voters of Jelapang were still angry at Hee for abandoning them.

“In fact, the voters are now more sympathetic with the DAP because of what Hee did. This is making the DAP stronger,” he said.

Wong also scoffed at Hee’s claims that she often comes back to Jelapang to meet with her constituents. “Whenever she comes down, she is with at least four or five bodyguards and she only comes here to give out allocations to schools or societies. She leaves quickly when she is done, before anyone knows that she had even come down,” he claimed.

When interviewed, Jelapang voters confirmed this. “I see her face more often in the newspapers than I do here in the constituency. Whenever we need to look for her, she is nowhere to be seen but in the newspapers, it looks as though she is always here.

“What kind of assemblyman is this — if you want to see her face, you have to look at the newspapers,” said Chan Chin Fah, a contractor from Papan Baru, Jelapang. He added that many local problems that needed attention were not seen to.

“We have no choice but to seek the help from political parties like MCA or the DAP,” he said.

Chan added that Jelapang constituents were not just angry with Hee, they were “extremely furious.”

“In the next election, if she dares to contest, no one will vote for her. The people still want the DAP,” he predicted.

Another constituent, supervisor Yau Hoy Wah, 57, who claims to have been a close comrade of Hee’s, said that the three-term assemblyman was too afraid to come back to Jelapang to meet the people.

“She comes now with a big team of policemen to protect her. Even then, she comes quickly and leaves,” he said.

He added that he had given her his full support during the 2004 and 2008 elections and was very disappointed that she had abandoned the party.

“She asked for my support in 2004 and I gave it to her. In 2008, I helped to raise RM1,000 for her in the election,” he said.

Yau added that that before Hee left the DAP, she had confided in him and told him how the MCA had offered her millions to cross over to the BN. “I asked her if she would jump and she said no but look, she suddenly left the DAP,” he said.

Today, Yau said that Hee was too afraid to even face him. “She knows that I am angry with her. She tried calling me shortly after she left and told me she wanted to return the money I had given her but I declined. I told her the money had been a contribution to the party and not to her personally,” he said.

Housewife R. Vijayasvari also agreed that Jelapang voters were still angry with Hee as they had not voted for her but for the DAP in the March 2008 election.

“And now, we feel that she has let us down. She is a very irresponsible leader. It was because of her that the government fell,” she said.

She added that she too has not seen Hee in the constituency since she left the DAP.

Whatever it is, this looks like the end of the road for Hee though. In a recent interview, Perak MCA chairman Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha confirmed with The Malaysian Insider that the MCA would not select Hee to contest under its party banner.

If Hee chooses to stand as an independent, that is as good as the end of her political career. DAP sources said preparations are already being made for the Jelapang seat and the party is confident it would earn another win in the next election.

One DAP assemblyman said: “Jelapang is still a very safe seat for us. In fact, we can put anyone in that seat, I am sure we can win it.”