At 9 a.m yesterday, I officiated the opening of the constituency centre of the new DAP MP for Segambut Hannah Yeoh at Taman Tun Dr. Ismail in Kuala Lumpur yesterday and received the DAP membership application from 24-year-old activist Heidy Quah, who received the prestigious Young Leaders Award from Queen Elizabeth II in London last year.

Heidy had been involved in advocacy work from a young age, having set up an NGO at age 18 to help refugees from Myanmar, forming the NGO Refuge for The Refugees (RFTR), which she founded with her friend Andrea Prisha.

There was a third item. Standard Six pupil Ervin Devadasan was at the centre with his father Ernest to donate the money he had been saving for months in his piggy bank to purchase a drum set to Tabung Harapan Malaysia.

I was very touched and moved – a 12-year-old primary school kid demonstrating by deed his deep love for the country!

Later that evening, I received a call from a reporter for my reaction to a very unfriendly attack on the boy’s donation, describing Tabung Harapan as a “politically-charged fund” and deploring Ervin’s donation as “ridiculous”, “exploitative”, “a gimmick” and “a pretty cheap stunt”. Read the rest of this entry »