MALAYSIANS KINI | It is not every day you meet someone who proclaims himself to be a 'mad' man, especially one with a profile picture of a potato and almost 230,000 followers on Facebook.

But 54-year-old community worker Kuan Chee Heng, whose nickname is "Abang Kentang" (Mister Potato), does not think he is the only mad person around.

“I name (my followers) all 'orang gila' (crazy people) because they are as mad as I.

“They argue with me when they are too late to donate (for any projects or initiatives).

“They are awesome people (and) they are really mad, mad like me,” he told Malaysiakini at his newly-launched RM1 house in Taman Puchong Utama, where anyone in need is welcome to stay at for RM1 per night.

His followers are so mad that on the day of the RM1 house launch, Kuan said he received so many donated household and food items from his followers that it was “as if we were going to war”.

With close to 20 years of experience in community work, the former police officer of six years said he is now an entrepreneur, which is also how he got his start in community work.

Kuan, who is from Batu Pahat, Johor, used to have a shop in Bukit Bintang, he explained, where he started to build rapport with the local community.

“A lot of people who are in trouble would come over (to my shop) and see me. Most of the people around there, those who are influential, we are together normally (also),” he said.

Known for his 10-sen initiatives such as the 10-sen market, 10-sen ambulance, 10-sen taxi and 10-sen library, and now the RM1 house, he said the small amount of money is just a token to help return them their dignity.

His priority is to ensure the poor are not bullied, he said, as he came from a very poor family who was bullied.

“I do not allow people to bully the poor. I will hold the poor but walk with the rich. Together we walk, and the rich can walk together with us,” he said.

Fair share of detractors

Kuan credits his lucky star, acknowledging that many of his initiatives are thanks to contributions from his friends and followers, such as the 10-sen library which was sponsored by a good friend of his.

His two RM1 houses are also almost entirely financed by entrepreneur Paul Lim, who had said that he intends to fund the houses “forever” as Kuan is his best friend.

“People don’t know that I am crazy. I intend to open more of these houses. The day we opened this (unit), there was already an offer for three more houses of this type,” Kuan said.

During the launch of his RM1 house, among those in attendance included a number of his Facebook followers, several police officers as well as prominent people from the community with titles.

It is not difficult to imagine him easily building rapport with people, as the plain-speaking Kuan seems to speak with everyone with the same degree of boisterousness and aplomb.

On his Facebook page, where he keeps up a regular and a near constant stream of postings, his many followers leave comments of praises and well wishes for him.

But he has his fair share of detractors, who point out his 10-sen and RM1 initiatives are open to misuse.

Kuan laughed it all off.

“Who wants to misuse an ambulance to go to the hospital? No one is taking the ambulance to go to Midvalley (shopping mall).

“Even if they stay in this house, in all religions it is a good thing to do to offer a place of rest to people.

“So if they want to misuse, I still get rewarded. Why worry so much? I am investing in afterworld shares, where the value will not go down but will only go up,” he said.

Something else people often ask is how sustainable these initiatives are. With occupants of the RM1 house only paying RM1 per night and the running of the houses costing about RM4,000 a month, how long can he keep it going?

He pointed to his 10-sen ambulance, complete with three full-time licensed paramedics, which has been running for about two years now. If that can succeed, why not the RM1 houses?

'Very awesome'

Besides, he told reporters during the launch of his RM1 house, donations from his followers pour in every month.

“This is because there are such strong supporters behind me. The Malaysia spirit is so strong and we can find it on this page (his Facebook). Very awesome,” he said.

Throughout the interview, he called many things awesome. Aside from the Malaysian spirit, those things also included Malaysians in general and in particular, his Facebook followers.

Kuan seems to have the grassroots support and back in 2013, before the 13th general election, he had announced that he would be running for the Puchong parliamentary seat as a pro-BN independent candidate.

However, one month later, he retracted his intention of running for political office.

“That was just a joke (acah-acah) only. No, politics is still not my cup of tea. That was because we have to tell our parliamentarians to work,” he added.

MPs, he said, quarrel about irrelevant things in Parliament, and they spend all their time politicking instead of helping the rakyat, he added.

“From the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim in 1998 until now, we have not rest one day from politics,” he lamented.

MPs and assemblypersons, who have been given mandate by the people, should at the very least set up a hotline so that people can contact their representatives when they need help, he said.

“Every day put big posters saying ‘Selamat Hari Raya’, but no telephone number.

“Why must the assemblypersons or MPs be scared of people contacting them? If they don’t want people to contact them, then don’t be an MP or an assemblyperson,” he said.

Kuan boasted that he advertises his contact information everywhere, so anyone can contact him, either on his phone or his Facebook.

He pulled out his phone and points to his WhatsApp which shows he has 3,924 unread messages.

Adding that he gets hundreds of calls a day, he claimed he wakes up at 5am every day to respond to the messages.

He encouraged elected representatives to start up their own initiatives to help the rakyat, because it is a “good and noble” thing to do.

“At least when they die, they are happier,” he said.

MALAYSIANS KINI is a series on Malaysians you should know.

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