Dyana Sofya
The Malay Mail Online
June 13, 2014

Dyana Sofya suffers from dysania and is using her superpowers to pen down her thoughts late into the night. Political Secretary to Lim Kit Siang by day and she tweets from @dyanasmd.

JUNE 13 — Upon finding out that I was to be the DAP candidate for the Teluk Intan by-election, a sudden rush of excitement, fear and uncertainty overcame me. With more than 60,000 voters to convince, more than 100 km2 of land area to cover, a new town to be familiarized with and new issues to study, the task ahead seemed gargantuan.

Despite all that, I chose to accept the challenge, promised myself to give it my best and started repeating Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s famous maxim: “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, get on, don’t ask what seat.”

Right from the outset, I was aware that I would face great backlash. I also expected personal attacks and smear tactics. After all, this is usual fare for members of the opposition, especially DAP. It also meant that there was nothing substantial to attack me on.

As rumours began swirling around that I would be a candidate, an alleged photo of me wearing a bikini emerged. My immediate reaction was to feel flattered, but sadly I knew that my love for sweet desserts meant that I could never pull off looking that good in such an outfit. Read the rest of this entry »