At 80 Consumer Champ Ravinder Wants To Bring Change As Mp

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Long time consumer activist Ravinder Singh is the Parti Rakyat Malaysia candidate for Bayan Baru.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.
Ravinder Singh with complainants at the Consumers’ Association of Penang office in the early 1980s. (Ravinder Singh pic)‘Ugly sight of Penang’ led to change
Looking back, the father of two said his most memorable expose as a consumer activist was on untreated sewage polluting the Penang Channel in 1974, with aerial photos he took from his friend’s Cessna plane.
His presentation, “The Ugly Sight of Penang” which premiered at an international environment conference in Penang the same year, led to a push for a modern sewage treatment system.
“The pictures showed how faecal matter spread throughout the channel from the Jelutong outfall. It was a giant black spot in our waters.
“The late Lim Chong Eu, who was then Penang chief minister, opened the conference, and was stunned by my presentation. He then summoned me to present my findings to the city council,” he said.
He added that his other exposes included the issue of open burning and the pollution of Sungai Pinang.
Ravinder Singh on his way to the Batu Kawan Estate School where he was an English and Malay teacher in the early 1960s. He rode the same bike to deliver consumers’ complaints to CAP on the island on the weekends. (Ravinder Singh pic)Ravinder, who hails from a family of cattle herders, said fitness had always been a priority as he and his five siblings were avid cyclists. He added that they all worked as milk delivery boys, riding across the island from their meadows in Batu Maung before going to the St George’s school in Balik Pulau for classes.
He said eating healthy was a daily mantra and he put in at least 30 minutes of exercise daily to remain sharp, as well as a commitment to hill climbing on weekends with friends.
On his recent foray into politics, Ravinder said: “I am a reluctant politician. After realising that our country needs a lot of change, especially in matters related to education, I’ve become less reluctant.
“We need check and balance for the government. We have to start somewhere. If it does not happen this time, then there’s always another time.”
In GE15, Ravinder is in a six-cornered fight for Bayan Baru. His opponents are Sim Tze Tzin of Pakatan Harapan (PH), who won the seat in the 2018 general election (GE14), Saw Yee Fung (Barisan Nasional), Oh Tong Keong (Perikatan Nasional), Jeff Ooi (Warisan), and independent Kan Chee Yuen. - FMT

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