"My mission is to bring Malaysia to a different plateau of courage to voice out your voice and favour and more importantly, to be a wakil rakyat and not a wakil party."
This is the key message of Klang independent candidate JR Deepak Jaikishan would like to convey to the voters and rakyat.
"I came from the generation of Karpal Singh and they fought for the rakyat. But if you look at the current generation, be in Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan, they all fall under party lines, where the party agenda is everything and the parties agenda is absolutely and only political," he said.
“If political parties only would like to achieve political agenda. They should not be called themselves as wakil rakyat, instead they should be called as wakil party, as political agenda has superseded by the agenda of the rakyat that nominated the member of parliament, he added.
"I think the definition is blurred now," he said. "I have come to a conclusion that in a mature political system when parties have really been there for a long time, there is a great need for a true wakil rakyat who is not confined in control by the party agenda," he added.
Deepak, the businessman turned independent candidate for Klang constituency, said he has met and spoken to various resident associations, non-governmental organisations and rakyat and has received positive response from those meeting.
“People know me now (and) what I would like them to know is this that voting for me means voting for your voice to be actually heard, voting for me it means that you have someone finally, who is not going to follow the party agenda as their main priority,” he said.
Still, he said he still facing some challenges to have his voice be heard by the conservative members.
“This vocal front that I've taken, I want it to go first down to the media,” he said, adding he would like to have media to be more investigative in nature.
He also would like the rakyat to know that they should be the one governs the politicians and not allowing politicians to dominate and control them.
Flood mitigation is priority task
One of the key issues, Deepak would like to resolve would be flooding issue that has suffered by Klang residents over the past few decades.
He pledged to build alternative drainage system, which including the implementation of sponge cities, to address the long-lasting flood issue faced by the Klang people.
As a competent and responsible administration, it is important to take pre-emptive measures such as cleaning the riverbanks and drainage system prior to the floods, he said.
"Imagine the sufferings to the students who have to go to school; the senior citizens and businesses that have to shut down and lose money," he said.
As a solution, he said there is a need to come up with a consultant engineering proposition to study feasibility of building a similar system of Smart tunnel in Klang.
"If not a smart tunnel system, (it can be) or at least a barrel trading system, which don't need to function unless there's floods," he said.
The system, which will be activated automatically when the water reaches a certain level that deemed dangerous or critical, he said. Then, the system would channel the water into alternative storage tanks, which eventually seeps back into the main water access.
"It really doesn't cost a lot of money and definitely not so expensive as Smart tunnel," he said.
"If you have not resolved at least have you thought about resolving it. These are solutions (but) there is no solution, no solution (right now),” he added.
Forming New Party To Continue Fighting
A new political party will be formed and more details will be announced after the national election, said Klang independent candidate JR Deepak Jaikishan.
“We've got approvals,” he said in an interview. “We will be announcing it after the elections. We will contest in the Selangor state elections,” he added.
“I believe we will be able to wrestle the state, even for Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan not because we are better but we are bringing a few right minded people who have been cast away by other parties to join us,” he said, adding people also found the current government was incompetence.
Multi racial party is the only way
With advancement of technology and shift in information consumption pattern, Deepak believed that the way to bring the country forward can only be done through multi racial party.
“The time has evolved and we are now in a situation where you need a party with multi racial. These are the parties that will go to the next step, especially the internet age,” he said.
“If you go to TikTok and Instagram, you will see the Malaysian youth who just come out of university you can see they do not talk about race. When they interact with each other on social media, race is not their first criteria. So, we are welcoming their generation and mentality into politics,” he added.
“It is a community where people speak in one language, the digital language, which is not Malay, English, Chinese, they speak the digital language,” he said.
Suggests To Use Petronas Annual Dividend To Fund Education, Healthcare Spending
Deepak is implementing a new concept dubbed "universal fairness" whereby every Malaysian should be getting equal access and rights to education through imposition of free education system as well as free healthcare system to all.
Free education from kindergarden to university and free healthcare system are two of Deepak’s the manifesto, in which he said it is crucial to eradicate extremism and ensure better well being of the people.
The fund would be solely come from Petronas’ annual dividend paid to the government, on top of the annual budget allocation, he said. “What I'm proposing is that the entire dividend given by PETRONAS to be set aside and cannot be controlled by Putrajaya,” he said.
“Can you imagine if that is implemented, there will be relief among especially among the lower income families who are struggling to survive. If they have free education, their motivation to study is higher.
Deepak also noted Malaysia’s healthcare is one of the best in the world, but many people could not afford the medical expenses due to rising cost.
“If they have an insurance card that covers from diagnosis until post medical treatment, and the card can be used in private and government healthcare as it is backed by insurance companies. It's like Medicare but covers everything,” he explained.
