JOHOR BARU: At least three candidates are banking on their track records of serving the community through their involvement in non-governmental organisations to garner votes.

       For Barisan Nasional’s Pandak Ahmad (pic), he started his NGO about 32 years ago when he was a village chief.

       "When I was 26, I was made the Kampung Sungai Melayu village chief. At that time, it was a big responsibility for me.

       "In between, I also joined other community-based NGO at the state and national level," said the candidate, who was vying for the Kota Iskandar seat.

       Pandak, who was currently the Malaysia Handball Federation president, said working for these NGO gave him valuable experience in helping the community.

       "Doing many NGO work within the Iskandar Puteri area has helped me to foster a good relationship with the locals from the fishing community to residential groups," said Pandak, who was also the Iskandar Puteri Umno division deputy chief.

       For Pertubuhan Kebajikan Jiwa president Datuk Tan Lek Khang, who was contesting Bekok under a Perikatan Nasional ticket, he has been providing assistance to the locals in Labis, Kota Tinggi and Johor Baru since three years ago.

       "We have been very busy during the Covid-19 pandemic, providing food aid to many affected people since 2020.

       "Even now, we are providing about 1,000 food baskets to the people each month," Tan said, adding that he also gave away about 400 tablets to schools in the area during the pandemic to enable students to study from home.

       On what prompted him to start an NGO, Tan said he lived a comfortable life until he was 15 when his father lost a huge sum of money after being cheated by a business partner.

       "We had to borrow money from relatives and sell our vehicles.

       "I experienced hardship in the past and promised myself that one day, if I am successful, I will help others in need," he said, adding that they also provided transport to take the elderly to the hospital for check-ups.

       As for Mohamed Ridza Busu, he decided to dabble in politics after many years of being active in an NGO.

       The Parti Warisan candidate for Permas said as a politician, he would be able to help channel aid to the targeted people.

       Ridza, who was also the Ihsan Johor Association vice-president, said they first started out as a group to help the less fortunate in building and repairing homes through crowdfunding.

       He added that Ihsan Johor had also been tasked with running the low-risk quarantine and treatment centre at Pasir Gudang Indoor Stadium and the Dewan Jubli Intan Sultan Ibrahim vaccination centre during the movement control order.

       Ridza said he had big plans for Permas if elected, including offering upskilling programmes for the youths and providing better access to the elderly to get medication and health treatments.