I don’t know why, but I have always found the Subang MP to be an odd person.
I don’t know why I pay so much interest to this particular MP — maybe because up to a few months ago, I stayed in SS15 — but other than that, I think I just tend to find what Wong Chen says to be .....unusual.
I remember that the first time I knew he existed was a couple of years ago, when he said that racism in the country is basically a working-class problem.
“Middle-class people who are enlightened are better. Those who are less enlightened are in the process of learning… but we expect their children to perform better,” he said in reference to how racism can be eliminated.
When I first heard it, I thought Wong Chen must be a very odd fella for tying enlightenment to the middle class and racism to the working class.
The next time I heard about Wong Chen was when he was complaining in May 2025 that his RM16,000 MP monthly salary — excluding perks and allowances — was barely enough to support his family. Just a month after he said that, he went to France in June 2025 for an extended two-week family holiday.
When I heard that, I couldn’t brain how an MP who was complaining that his salary — which goes up to RM27,000 to RM28,000 a month once you include allowances — was not enough to support his family, could then with a straight face take his family on a two-week trip to Europe.
Just like he had a very odd and strange notion about racism and the working class, or the middle class and enlightenment, it seems to me that he also has a a very strange and odd notion of what “not being able to support your family” means.
And yesterday, I am again finding another strange and peculiar news about Wong Chen, after he announced that he will step down from his position as chairman of Malaysia Debt Ventures Bhd (MDV) on May 31, after the Finance Ministry decided to end his tenure.
Wong Chen claimed that he didn’t even want the post in the first place, because he disagreed with MPs serving in GLCs.
“I had not asked for the role but was directed to report for duty by the prime minister. Then I found out that I had inherited a government financial institution in a troubled state,” Wong Chen said.
It made me wonder just what exactly did Anwar do to force Wong Chen to accept the position of the chairman of MDV — did he, like Don Corleone, put an appointment letter in front of Wong Chen and a gun to his head, and say that either his signature or his brains will be on it?
But despite taking on the role without his consent, Wong also claimed that under his watch, MDV recorded a profit of RM3.4 million in 2024, before more than doubling this figure the following year.
And how did he achieve it?
Well, supposedly, according to him at least, he did it just by doing nothing.
“My task as the new non-executive chairman was clear: to provide governance leadership. The very first thing I did was to cut out undue influence of politicians and people in power.
“I didn’t return calls and WhatsApp messages from people of influence. Instead, I asked them to write me a formal letter if they had a request. Nobody did, and after six months, nobody bothered me any more,” he said in a Facebook post.
So in other words, he did nothing other than not return calls and messages, and he succeeded in turning around a struggling GLC, although he only accepted the role of chairman of the GLC without his consent.
Listening to him reason is like watching a Tamil movie, where the lead actor goes from zero to hero all in the span of one song, despite not wanting to be the hero at all.
But despite not even wanting the role in the first place, Wong also complained about the Finance Ministry not even addressing the termination letter to him or reach out to explain the termination.
Instead, he was just informed about it by MDV management.
If I lost something that I never wanted and was forced to accept it against my consent, I wouldn't complain. But as I said, I find Wong Chen to be an odd fella indeed.
Wong Chen, by the way, is still a PKR MP.
As a PKR MP, he has won the Subang seat for three terms.
Despite that, Wong — who is aligned with Rafizi Ramli, and who was present at the announcement event where Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi took over Parti Bersama Malaysia, and who has also announced that he would stand as a Bersama candidate if he contests in the next general election — has still not left PKR or resigned as the Subang MP.
I have no idea how he is doing all this with a straight face. I truly don't.
Whenever I read anything about Wong Chen, I must say that I will always be engulfed in this feeling that either there is something deeply wrong with him, or something deeply wrong with me, because both of us can't possibly be both right.
I feel like like this, because whatever he says about how things are or how they should be are always things that I find myself vehemently disagreeing with.
I don’t think the middle class is enlightened.
I don’t think the working class is racist.
I don’t think a person who says he cannot afford to support his family this month should fly his family for a two-week vacation in France the next month.
I don’t think anyone, especially an MP, should feel forced to take a job that is against their principles.
I also think that if you say you are going to contest under some other party’s ticket in the next election, you should leave the party that you are with at once.
But this is what I think. Wong Chen, obviously, has a completely opposite idea of what is good and right, or what is true and false.
Anyway, one of the things that I am truly interested to see about Parti Bersama Malaysia in the coming days as it manifests itself and shows the people what we can expect from it, is just what sort of people it is going to field in the coming election.
Is it just going to field whichever Tom, Dick and Harry that are aligned with it or loyal to the party leaders, or does it have some standards for those who wish to represent it to meet?
Is it going to field those who were sidelined because they were pushing for reform in PKR, or is it going to field anyone who was sidelined in PKR, just because they were sidelined by PKR?
Does it expect its representatives to speak out in a way that tallies with reality, or does it just expect its MP's to just say whatever is on their mind, without feeling that they are in any way bound to reason or reality?
Anyway, I think I am going to adopt Wong Chen as my bellwether candidate for Bersama.
I have a feeling that how he fares in Bersama will be an indication of what we can expect from Bersama.
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