[luncheonmeat]

When Leong Mun Wai was first debuted as an NCMP, I cringed at his poor performance as he seemed ill prepared and was bad optics in parliament.

I am pleased to observe what he lacks in language and hard technical skills he makes up with persistence and determination. His English articulation and thought process is still bad and his penchant for shooting off the hip on complex topics without due preparation still shows occasionally, but I believe he exemplifies what a lot of people expect from their MP.

At the end of the day, most voters just need their MP to ask simple everyday questions that concern them without obfuscation and show the willingness to grind it out and demand for a simple and easy to understand answer even in the face of overwhelming unfriendly numbers and propensity for the government to avoid answering tough questions by jargon flooding and professional sneering.

Though Leong is unlikely to make the cut for leadership and strategic positions within the opposition, there is a place and value for people like him to ask tough questions and I hope voters will give him the chance come next election.

On a side note, the other NCMP Hazel was supposed to be the smarter and more presentable one based on her CV and I must say to date her performance is disappointing. She's like a nobody who just hangs around to make perfunctory speeches and hoarded a valuable NCMP space that could have been filled up by someone else.

Ah Leong writes very well [check his FB posts] so it is not a matter of his English proficiency but rather his lack of the gift of the gab or oratorical skills. And what he is deficient in he more than makes up in nerve which many of the opp MPs are short in.  Hazel is a valued NCMP and comes well researched even if she leaves all the talking to Ah Leong.  She is anytime more useful dan those PAPaya appointed NCMPs.