Life beyond the ministry

The Star

Even with the demands of his role as Human Resource Minister Steven Sim still makes time for personal interests.   As the youngest minister in the current Cabinet and author of four books, he is preparing to release his fifth.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 I have a life beyond work.

00:20 But I think more importantly, my writings

00:24 are reflections of my work, of what

00:27 I believe in, my principles in my life, my experience.

00:31 For example, the book on--

00:33 the new book that we are preparing,

00:35 it is about politics of service versus politics

00:39 of self-interest.

00:41 I wanted to look into the life of this particular politician

00:45 and look at how he has committed to politics

00:49 not because of wealth or position,

00:52 but because-- precisely because he

00:54 wanted to serve his community.

00:57 That is a reflection of what I'm going through as well

00:59 in my current role as a politician, as a wakil

01:04 raya, and as a minister.

01:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:08 Can you share who?

01:16 You will have to wait for the book to come out.

01:18 When is the book coming out?

01:19 We are now in the midst of editorial work.

01:23 So hopefully by this year.

01:25 He is actually a very little-known local politician

01:28 from Bukit Mertajam.

01:29 But when I look at his contribution in the '50s,

01:33 in the '40s, and then in the '50s,

01:34 I realize that he has done so much for not only my town,

01:39 my hometown, Bukit Mertajam, but also for the state of Penang

01:41 and Malaysia in general.

01:43 But many young people don't know about this person.

01:46 So I think whether as an MP for Bukit Mertajam,

01:51 wanting to give recognition to one of our early fathers,

01:54 or as a politician wanting to promote this,

02:00 or to embrace this value of politics of service,

02:04 I think this is something that I had to do.

02:07 [MUSIC PLAYING]

02:10 One of the things that we have managed to deal with

02:17 was flood mitigation.

02:19 It was very important because Bukit Mertajam

02:21 was a hotspot for flash flood disaster.

02:26 I think this is one of the--

02:27 it's very close to my heart because I'm a Bukit Mertajam

02:30 boy.

02:30 I grew up having to deal with flood two or three times

02:34 a year in my taman itself.

02:38 I wouldn't say we have resolved flood issue 100%.

02:42 But we have substantially minimized

02:48 occurrences of flood, as well as minimized areas that

02:52 are flooded in Bukit Mertajam.

02:54 A few years ago, together with the local NGOs,

02:58 I started our annual Bukit Mertajam Art and Music Fest.

03:04 So we started with what I call the software, which

03:07 are essentially events--

03:10 music fests, art fests, food exhibition,

03:15 traditional food exhibition.

03:16 We've got Hakka, Hokkien food, Hakka food, Cantonese food,

03:19 Hainan food, et cetera.

03:20 But eventually, as we begin to organize

03:23 more of these activities, they sort of

03:26 nurtured a higher sense of awareness

03:30 about the need and the importance

03:32 to preserve our heritage and our culture.

03:34 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:37 We decided to start giving out laptops.

03:44 Some of my team members say, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

03:48 because if you give a food basket,

03:52 you give a [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] it probably

03:53 cost you 100 ringgit or 150.

03:56 But a laptop can easily go up to at least 2,000 ringgit.

03:59 At that time, there were no stock for the lower range ones.

04:02 I said, let's do whatever we can do.

04:04 We started by forging out money to buy one or two.

04:08 Then we said, if we can help one, we help one.

04:10 We can help two, we help two.

04:11 And then when I posted it out on my Facebook,

04:13 friends, those who are close to me, my former classmates,

04:16 decided, hey, we want to donate two or three or even use one.

04:21 And I think one thing led to another.

04:24 Our postings on social media helped.

04:26 Eventually, people came on board.

04:29 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] at that time came on board

04:31 and gave us 50 laptops.

04:33 So I think eventually, without a single cent of allocation

04:37 at that time, we have managed to distribute about 600

04:41 new laptops and tablets to children in Bukit Metajam.

04:45 For me, that is a very personal experience

04:49 because I felt that this is something that we needed to do.

04:52 And we really worked very hard to get 600 laptops.

04:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:00 [NO AUDIO]

05:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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