Khamis, 25 Ogos 2011

Hannah Yeoh

Hannah Yeoh

My interview with BBC

Posted: 25 Aug 2011 09:32 PM PDT


WATCH: First-time politician Hannah Yeoh wants to work against the race-based politics she feels are entrenched in the national psyche

Working Lives: Malaysia

Hannah Yeoh, 32, is a first-time politician with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in Selangor state. 

Before she was elected into office Ms Yeoh says she was the typical working Malaysian, disillusioned with the country's politics and griping about wages not keeping up with inflation.

A friend encouraged Ms Yeoh to stop complaining and register to vote. A few months later she was asked to run for a seat in the General Elections of 2008. 

Ms Yeoh's first election turned out to be a historic one. The opposition coalition of which the DAP is a member ended up taking power in a few states and denied the governing party its two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time in nearly four decades.

Suddenly change was in the air. As an ethnic Chinese, Ms Yeoh says she wants to work against race-based politics that she says is entrenched in the national psyche.

This affects even civic basics like birth certificates, which now require the race of a child to be declared. Ms Yeoh and her husband, an ethnic Indian, are trying to challenge that by registering their newborn baby's race as Malaysian.

Their application was rejected but Ms Yeoh says she will continue to appeal.

Watch the video interview here
  
The full version will air on August 27th.
 
Working Lives Malaysia will be shown in full on BBC World News on Saturday 27th August at 0030, 0730, 1930 GMT and on Sunday 28th August at 1230 GMT.
 
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