Vivian too young? It’s a myth – Hannah
The assertion that “Vivian is too young and inexperienced” is a myth, said Hannah Yeoh, the Segambut MP cum Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development.
She made the remark in response to claim that the Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) candidate for the Sandakan parliamentary by-election is too young and inexperienced to be elected as the Sandakan MP.
“When I first started in 2008 as an assemblywoman in Selangor (Subang Jaya), I was 29 years old, younger than Vivian, who is now 30 years old. As for experience, it is wrong to say that Vivian has no experience. Vivian’s starting point is way ahead of me when I first started. She was the special officer to the former Minister of Health and People’s Wellbeing, so, she had at least one year of experience serving, not only in parliament, but statewide in Sabah. That is a lot of experience looking at statewide policy,” Yeoh said.
Yeoh also pointed out that Wong has a Diploma in Early Childhood Education, because Wong cares for the younger generation. She went on to say that 30 percent of Malaysians, which is about 9 million people in Malaysia, are children.
Yeoh shared that DAP is a party that has an excellent mentoring system and its members support youth and women to take leadership roles and shine.
“Out of 42 members of parliament and 108 assemblymen from DAP, 20 percent of them are women and 30 percent of them are youth under 40 years old. Among the elected representatives who are youth, 40 percent, almost half of them are women. So, if Vivian were to be chosen as the representative for Sandakan, she will add to this percentage. This is the norm in DAP, because in DAP we promote women and youth leadership.
“Out of 172,000 of current DAP members, 21.7 percent of them are youth under 40 years old. We also have 39,000 people who have applied to become DAP members and most of them are youths,” Yeoh disclosed.
She said, based on the statistics that she had shared, DAP has a good mentoring system in which its members are groomed, which is why since 2008, DAP has, in a short time, produced many leaders who are youth and women.
“Vivian Wong is an icon for the voters and DAP members as they want to see youth and woman become a leader. We need people like her in parliament. I believe that she would add a new perspective in the parliament if she is elected.
“When Vivian is elected, she will be alongside women ministers, deputy ministers, and select committees; she will be able to bring up all these issues,” Yeoh added.
Yeoh spoke at a press conference held at Kenalanmu Seafood Restaurant at Mile 4 here yesterday with Wong, Lee, and other DAP leaders.