PETALING JAYA, Sept 19 — A fledgling political party in Penang is hoping to do what more established political parties are sometimes too distracted to do: serve their constituents.

"We are the middle voice for the Penang people. For us, the people is the boss. We are a party for the Penang people,” Malaysian United Party (MUP) deputy president Koay Xing Boon told Malay Mail Online.

The thing is bigger political parties are quite often bogged down by in-fighting and spend a lot of time trying to resolve internal party issues.

MUP is offering voters a party whose leaders have their ears on the ground.

Officially registered just last December, Koay claim MUP already boasts a membership of 10,000 comprising of professionals and businessmen.

He believes that by focusing on Penangites and providing them free services such as traditional and complementary medicine, health check-ups and blood tests, MUP is slowly but surely gaining support in areas like Bayan Baru and Taman Lip Sin.

"We are on the ground. We do a lot of community service. Some would say we could easily be mistaken for a non-profit organisation for what we do!” Koay added.

An example of what MUP has been doing, according to general secretary Kee Lean Ee, is carrying out donaton drive campaigns and raising funds for the needy.

"A Malay man got into an accident some years ago... we carried out a charity drive to help him,” she said.

Both believe that their party’s hands-on approach and focus on tangible needs of Penang folks sets them apart from other Chinese-majority Penang-based parties.

"We are new, we are fresh and we go to the ground,” he said.

Koay said some Penang voters have expressed unhappiness with issues like overdevelopment in the state.

"But for us we focus on the problems of the community. No point complaining without a solution.”

MUP is a multi-racial party although most of its members are Chinese. The party intends to contest a few seats in Penang for GE14 but has not finalised details yet.