Ravinder Singh on nomination day for Malaysia’s 15th General Election. Photo on left courtesy of FMT
By Predeep Nambiar | FMT | Malaysia |
GEORGE TOWN: Having dealt with close to 100,000 public complaints in his lifetime, consumer activist and Bayan Baru candidate Ravinder Singh says he is ready to take on more grouses and push for better consumer policies in the Dewan Rakyat.
The 80-year-old Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) hopeful said he began as a problem solver for estate workers in the 1960s when he was posted as a teacher to Batu Kawan.
“The first complaint I attended to was over a defective watch of an estate worker. The matter was resolved without much fuss. I then started to hear more complaints,” he told FMT.
Ravinder said he became a voluntary worker for the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) in 1972, fighting for grouses of the laymen. He would cycle from Simpang Ampat, where he lived, to the CAP office on the island some 40km away every Saturday afternoon bearing the complaints.
“Saturday was half-day so that was the only free time I had after teaching. It was not about attending to complaints alone. We taught people their rights as consumers and helped draft letters on their behalf so they could independently make complaints in the future,” he said.
In his teaching career, Ravinder served as a lecturer at the Sultan Abdul Halim Teachers’ Training College in Kedah, and was later made a school senior assistant before opting for early retirement in 1993. He taught Malay and English. After retirement, he obtained a law degree.
He served CAP for 50 years, with the first 30 as a volunteer and then as its complaints bureau chief, a post he retired from two years ago due to downsizing.
He is also a prolific contributor to the ‘Letter to the Editor’ section in major news outlets since the 1970s. He has written thousands of letters on consumer complaints and national issues and continues to do so to this day.
Read the full story here.
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