CALONKINI | In his youth, Ong Siang Liang was a budding lawyer. The country’s economy was doing well at the time, but for Ong, unequal treatment of minorities had bred resentment.

Ong, 45, who hails from the sleepy hollow of Trong, Perak had to scrounge to put himself through a private law school while his lesser qualified peers entered public universities.

By the time he joined the legal practice, this resentment had turned him into a DAP supporter. Two decades later, Ong rose up the ranks and became the Federal Territories Gerakan Youth chief and BN’s candidate for the Kepong parliamentary seat.

Ong has long practiced law from his office in Kepong, which has a reputation of being a DAP stronghold. Ong believed that his years of being a local activist and troubleshooter endeared him to voters.

How did this DAP supporter end up in Gerakan? What are his policy positions?

This is his story in his own words, edited for clarity and brevity.

At the time, between 1995 and 1996 I was pro-DAP. I was about to join them, but a fellow lawyer and friend Ma Woei Chyi convinced me to join Gerakan with this simple story.

He asked me: If you are a father with two children. One is obedient. The other is rebellious but nice to you. Who would you listen to? He was comparing Gerakan (a BN component) and DAP, which is always against you.

I thought about it for a while and concluded that if I wanted to bring change and make sure our voices are heard. That is how I joined Gerakan.

I was driven to politics because of social justice and equality. People complain about being treated unfairly by the government. This not fair. That not fair. In particular, the Chinese students were saying that the government was not fair because they had good results but they couldn’t enter public universities.

I didn’t understand the system or how it works. Now, I do, more or less. University quotas had caused a lot of unhappiness. This is how the politics of hatred breeds.

I believe in being a true Malaysian. When we are abroad, we always identify ourselves as Malaysian. But back home, we are segregated by race. I cannot understand why we are only Malaysians abroad.

If I’m elected to Parliament, I want to remove race from government application forms. It should only state Malaysian or non-Malaysian. That’s it. I don’t want our race and religion recorded on our identity cards either. Why is it even there? We should not isolate ourselves from other Malaysians.

We are making slow progress in terms of integration. Look at the schools today. It makes me sad. The Chinese keeps to themselves. So do the Indians and Malays. Even at university, I notice the different ethnic groups don’t mix around. Parents are also guilty of cultivating such behaviour by setting the wrong examples.

Malay will monopolise civil service while Chinese claim to be champions in business. To me, this is not good. We should mix around. It is not because the government doesn’t want the Chinese in civil service. The Chinese themselves don’t want it.

I am a Gerakan member because it is not a race-based party. It represents all ethnic groups, although its members are predominantly Chinese. Our candidates are multiracial. There is progress. Better than in 2013.

I believe in the open market, which is Gerakan’s principle. But we must take care of those who need help, without controlling everything. If you control everything, then we’ll have a communist country.

If elected as Kepong MP, I will work like a DUN. As a DUN (state assemblyperson), I will take care of all the problems people face daily, such as road conditions, blocked drains and rubbish collections. These are issues here, especially in Jinjang Utara.

People say the incumbent doesn’t handle such work. Perhaps he only dispenses his MP duties. That is not enough.

I want to promote Kepong as a livable place and a tourist spot. I want it to be like Sekinchan or Teluk Intan. In Kepong, it has a Chinese majority and many of them are still holding on to tradition. Do you know that there are at least 10 wells that are still being used in Jinjang? I call this “kampung life in the city”.

Life in Kepong is unique. If we can package it correctly - modern, yet traditional - I think we will draw visitors.

CALONKINI introduces new faces from all sides of the political divide in the run-up to the 14th general election. A total of 20 CALONKINI articles were published.

These interviews are not an endorsement by Malaysiakini.