ISKANDAR PUTERI, May 3 — With a little more than a week left before GE14, Barisan Nasional’s (BN) candidate for the Kota Iskandar state seat Mohammad Khairi A. Malik has doubled down on his outreach efforts to his hometown’s community.
“It takes a local to understand a local. For me, I know their needs very well and the community knows how I have worked in the past to assist them in my capacity as the Gelang Patah Umno division chief.
“The Kota Iskandar state seat community is mainly a close-knit one and I prefer to engage them in smaller focus groups rather than a large scale ceramah,” he said when met at his evening community visits here tonight.
The 51-year-old state seat debutant is known to assist locals by means of empowering them for the long-term via entrepreneurial and skills programmes that are cater to the service and cottage industries.
Kota Iskandar and Skudai are two state seats under the former Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency, which has since been renamed Iskandar Puteri.
For his campaign, Mohammad Khairi will undertake a new project to prepare youths for the job market in the state constituency via a career portal linked to potential employers within the Iskandar Puteri area.
“Why not? This is something beneficial and much needed for the local youths.
“We have many multinational and even local companies that have set-up their operations in Iskandar Puteri, so it is only natural that we assist in matching their manpower needs with the community,” said the economics graduate.
Mohammad Khairi, who is also the political secretary to the caretaker Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, said such a programme in the localised Iskandar Puteri manifesto will assist local youth in gaining proper employment.
“In addition to that, I have also been an active advocate of entrepreneurial and skills training programmes for the community.
“We will start on e-commerce and digital platform to train youths on online business models.
“Most of it is to prepare the community to be self-sustainable,” said Mohammad Khairi.
He said that his other programmes to uplift the community have been popular, adding that among those who had benefitted were village folk and also fishermen.
For the Iskandar Puteri BN campaign, Mohammad Khairi and parliamentary hopeful Datuk Jason Teoh Sew Hock emphasised the fact that they both have local roots and the local community can benefit immensely if they win.
Mohammad Khairi, who is proud of his roots in Kampung Tiram Duku in Gelang Patah, believes that only a local can be a good and committed representative for the people.
He also dismissed criticism from the Opposition pact that the 17-point manifesto was too localised for parliamentary level.
“I don’t see any problem. Personally, I don't think the Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidates will understand the needs of the community here,” he said.
On May 9, Mohammad Khairi will go up against PH hopeful Dzulkefly Ahmad, 52, and PAS’ Salehuddin Mohd Dahiran, 51, in a three-corner contest for the Kota Iskandar state seat.
