Ipoh Timor GE15 candidates vow to solve social issues, attract youths back to the city

By Teh Kuan Hong

IPOH, Nov 15 (Bernama) -- As Ipoh is fast becoming an ageing city, candidates contesting in the 15th General Election (GE15) for the Ipoh Timor parliamentary seat are vowing to solve various social issues surrounding the community and attract youths who had travelled out of Perak to return to the silver state.

Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate Nor Afzainizam Salleh, for one, hopes to build more senior citizen-friendly infrastructures, such as community centres at mosques to encourage elderly individuals to socialise with those of similar ages.

“With such amenities, the old folks can engage in their preferred hobbies or interact with their peers, basically allowing them to spend more quality time with friends and make new acquaintances, instead of wasting away at home by themselves, particularly for those who live alone,” he told Bernama when met recently.

Besides wanting to encourage the younger generation to return to the city, he also vowed to solve squatters’ issues prevalent in the Ipoh city centre and improve the social welfare of the elderly.

According to the 2020 Census by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), Perak has the highest old-age dependency ratio at 13.2 per cent compared to the national median of 9.7 per cent and also the highest population aged 65 years and above, at 8.9 per cent.

With a similar sentiment, Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Ng Kai Cheong hopes to reinforce Ipoh as a popular tourist destination and introduce better economic plans in encouraging young adults to establish their businesses in the city.

“One of the ways into this effort is to establish a food guide curated for tourists via social media, as well as to cooperate with international food bloggers or TikTok content creators to reach a wider audience.

“We will also look into more ideas to make the promotion of Ipoh food a continuous future project,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate Lee Chuan How wants to introduce a national care economy and ageing community preparedness plan dubbed 'Siaga Jaga' to mainstream agedness preparedness.

He said the plan seeks to professionalise the care sector, build capacity and training to achieve an ideal caregiver support ratio, and promote tax support and incentives for employers to hire and train older persons, among others.

“This plan has the potential to open up more job opportunities in the state, besides enabling the younger generation to live the Asian value of caring for their parents without being forced into it,” he said.

Nor Afzainizam, Ng and Lee are in a three-cornered fight for the Ipoh Timor parliamentary seat previously won by incumbent Wong Kah Woh of PH-DAP who won the seat in a straight fight against  BN's Kathleen Wong Mei Yin with a 42,797-vote majority in the GE14 in 2018.

There are a total of 118,178 registered voters in Ipoh Timor parliamentary constituency which also has three state seats namely Canning, Tebing Tinggi and Pasir Pinji.

-- BERNAMA