GE13: Late Edward Lee's son announces candidature

First Published: 12:21pm, Apr 11, 2013

Last Updated: 1:19pm, Apr 11, 2013
http://fz.com/content/ge13-late-edward-lees-son-announces-candidature

by Tarani Palani

FZ.COM/Shahrin Yahya

Simon Lee said he would contest as a 

"community candidate" to champion issues which 

really affect the Bukit Gasing people.

Simon Lee posing with his banners for the 

May 5 general election.

PETALING JAYA (April 11): It is official. Simon Lee, 34, the son of late Bukit Gasing assemblyman Edward Lee, will contest in the Selangor state seat as an Independent candidate.

Announcing his candidature this morning here today, he said he would contest as a "community candidate" to champion issues which really affect the people of Bukit Gasing.

"What makes me different from the typical politician is that I would be freely able to represent the people without worries of attachment that comes with a political party," he said.

With this announcement, the state seat is expected to see a fight between Lee, a Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate and a DAP candidate which many have touted to be newcomer, Kasturi Patto, daughter of late DAP stalwart P Patto.

Lee's revered late father Edward, first time assemblymen himself, stood under the DAP ticket and received 15,735 votes in the 2008 general election.

He defeated Gerakan's Datuk Dr Lim Thuang Seng with a whopping 8,812-vote majority.

On the anticipated three-corner fight, Lee, a newcomer himself said he had written to Pakatan Rakyat and DAP leadership voicing his intention to contest under the DAP ticket mid last year.

However, his request to stand as a community candidate was turned down as "it would start a precedence of independent candidates running under the banner of DAP and their members will not be in favour of this".

Lee told fz.com that this campaign was initially planned for Edward who would have stood as an independent in this election. Edward passed away in December 2011.

"This entire campaign was planned for him," he said.

He added that while having the freedom to act for the people without being imposed with party restrictions, he was also mindful of how crucial this election was in retaining the Selangor state.

Lee who has indicated that he was pro-Pakatan, was not open to stating clearly which side of the divide he stood on.

But when asked if he could sway the DAP-voters merely to allow the Pakatan to retain Selangor, he said: "If they vote for the right person (me), I will put my leaning where the people will want me to put (it)”.

He said it was akin to killing two birds with one stone where issues close to the community can be worked on intently and larger state political divides can still be managed well. [Sic: Simon said, "Akin to two for the price of one (vote). The people of Bukit Gasing get an elected rep - 1) Who is able to freely represent and serve the people's interest without attachments that come along with being in a political party, and 2) Who is able lean towards the coalition who shares and subscribes to the principles and objectives of the community candidate as well as a coalition of the people's choice."]

Lee, who has been his father's personal assistant for the four years when the latter served as assemblyman, is using the fact that he understands the issues as a local resident, as leverage.

Neatly listing down the issues in his manifesto, he said among things that matter to the locals are the freehold status in Bukit Gasing and other local government-related issues.

"In Section 5 (Petaling Jaya) where I live, the land in the north is leasehold while the land in the south is freehold. So, people are very concerned because of this inconsistency " he said.

He said the point of his candidature was to bring back politics to the public and to encourage their participation to bring changes to the community.

"There is a need for ordinary people and not full time politician or career based politicians to participate in (issues close to their hearts).

"Like my father, even before coming into politics, he was an activist, a person very in touch with grassroot matters," he said.

Lee will use much of social media as a primary campaign platform. His website for his candidature is http://www.n34bukitgasing.com/