KUANTAN: A social media complaint application, which is the brainchild of Indera Mahkota MCA Youth chief Quek Tai Seong, could prove decisive in Barisan Nasional’s bid to wrestle the Semambu state seat from the opposition in the 14th General Election (GE14).
Quek, who is the special officer to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, said today that the application introduced two years ago had allowed him to enjoy a close relationship with the people of the constituency.
The 39-year-old aspiring candidate said the application was a major hit among people of all races.
He said he received an average of two complaints daily on issues such as clogged drains, uncollected rubbish and damaged roads.
“I shared my contact number on Facebook, WeChat and Whatsapp application to allow some 30,000 registered voters in Semambu to convey their problems to me. To date, I have received some 600 complaints.
“Some 70 per cent of the problems have been solved while the other pending issues have been forwarded to the state and federal governments.”
Quek said he made it a point to go down to the ground to mingle with people in the constituency and find out about their problems.
“This approach has allowed me to understand the people better and they agree that my social media application has helped to solve their problems within a short time.
“The people are comfortable with MCA’s presence and its efforts to solve their problems. The voters should support BN and reject the opposition as the current assemblyman (PKR) has failed to carry out his duties.”
Quek said 60 per cent of the voters in the Semambu constituency were Malay and 31 per cent were Chinese.
He said they would not be taken in by the issues played up by the opposition, including the Lynas rare earth issue.
“The people are able to judge the issues for themselves and with three opposition representatives (Semambu and Beserah state seats, and Indera Mahkota parliamentary seat)... what are the changes they have brought?”
In the 13th General Election, PKR’s candidate Lee Chean Chung beat Datuk Pang Tsu Ming (BN) with a majority of 3,200 votes to win the Semambu state seat.