Wong Tack ( zh, s=黄德, t=黃德, poj=N̂g Tek, j=Wong4 Dak1, p=Huáng Dé;

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Pha̍k-fa-sṳ () is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī and used to write Hakka, a variety of Chinese. Hakka is a whole branch of Chinese, and Hakka dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with each other, considering the large geo ...

: ''Vòng Tet'') is a Malaysian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Bentong Bentong, the seat of Bentong District, is a town located in western Pahang, Malaysia, at the border with the state of Selangor in the west and the state of Negeri Sembilan in the south. Government Bentong Municipal Council () is the local au ...

from May 2018 to November 2022. He is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

and was a member of the

Democratic Action Party The Democratic Action Party (DAP; ) is a social democracy, social democratic and Secularism, secular political party in Malaysia, sitting on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum. As one of four component parties of ...

(DAP), a component party of the

Pakatan Harapan Pakatan Harapan (PH; stylised as HARAPAN; ) is a Malaysian Parliamentary group, political coalition consisting of Centre-left politics, centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has led ...

(PH) and formerly

Pakatan Rakyat Pakatan Rakyat (PR; ) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP), and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Par ...

(PR) coalition.

Background

Wong was born in Seri Telemong,

Pahang {{Infobox political division , name = Pahang , official_name = Pahang Darul Makmur , native_name = , settlement_type = States and federal territories of Malaysia, State , image_skyline = , imagesize ...

and had stayed in

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

for a few years. He is a

Malaysian Chinese Malaysian Chinese, Chinese Malaysians, or Sino-Malaysians are Malaysians, Malaysian citizens of Chinese people, Chinese ethnicity. They form the second-largest ethnic group in Malaysia, after the Malaysian Malays, Malay majority, and , const ...

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

descent (despite the dominant dialect group in Pahang state is predominantly of

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

origin, but both subgroups share the same ancestral province in China which is

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

). In November 2018, Wong was revealed as the poorest MP in the asset declaration list with a monthly income of RM22,412.64 as shown in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) official website.

Environment activism

Wong was the chairperson of '' Himpunan Hijau'', or ''Green Assembly'' a Malaysian environmentalist movement protesting against the

Lynas Advanced Materials Plant Lynas Rare Earths, Ltd. is an Australian rare-earths mining company with two major operations: a mining and concentration plant at Mount Weld in Western Australia, and the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Kuantan, Malaysia. The ...

(LAMP), a rare earth processing plant operating in Gebeng, Kuantan, Pahang which he founded in 2011. The ''Save Malaysia Stop Lynas'' (SMSL) group is currently led by Wong.

Political career

Member of Parliament (2018–2022)

2018 general election

Wong for the first time was fielded in the 2013 general election as DAP candidate to contest the Bentong parliamentary seat and has come close to defeat the incumbent,

Malaysian Chinese Association The Malaysian Chinese Association (Abbreviation, abbrev: MCA; Malay language, Malay: ''Persatuan Cina Malaysia''), formerly known as the Malayan Chinese Association, is an ethnic List of political parties in Malaysia, political party in Malaysi ...

(MCA) president

Liow Tiong Lai Liow Tiong Lai (; born 13 October 1961) is a Malaysian politician and nutritionist who served as minister of transport, minister of health, deputy minister of youth and sports in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former prime ...

, losing by a total 379 votes. In the 2018 general election he recontested again and turned the table to defeat Liow for the Bentong parliamentary seat with a 2,032 majority.

2022 general election

On 26 October 2022, DAP announced that Wong had been dropped by the party to contest for the Bentong seat in the

2022 general election The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2022. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2022 United Nations Security Council election * 2022 national electoral calendar * 2022 loca ...

. Instead, DAP decided to field its Deputy Youth Chief and Member of the

Pahang State Legislative Assembly The Pahang State Legislative Assembly () is the unicameral state legislature of the Malaysian state of Pahang. It is composed of 42 members representing single-member constituencies throughout the state. The Assembly convenes at the Wisma Seri P ...

(MLA) for Ketari

Young Syefura Othman Young Syefura Othman (born 9 November 1989), nicknamed Rara, is a Malaysian politician and nurse who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bentong since November 2022. She served as Member of the Pahang State Legislative Assembly (MLA ...

to contest for the seat. DAP Secretary-General

Anthony Loke Loke Siew Fook (; born 28 April 1977) also known as Anthony Loke is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Transport for the first term in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim since Decembe ...

justified that Young Syefura was the most winnable candidate. Loke also revealed that Wong had been offered to contest for the

Cameron Highlands The Cameron Highlands () is a district in Pahang, Malaysia, occupying an area of . To the north, its boundary touches that of Kelantan; to the west, it shares part of its border with Perak. Situated at the northwestern tip of Pahang, Cameron Hi ...

seat, Wong however had rejected it and Loke expressed his respect towards his rejection. In strong response, Wong broke ranks with the party and announced that he would seek reelection as the Bentong MP by contesting for the Bentong seat as an

candidate for the very first time, which was against the party rules and discipline as well as facing the risks of costing him the party membership. He stressed that Bentong was his hometown and there was no need for him to move away from Bentong as well as taking swipe at the party for its internal politicking and power struggles, he also distanced himself and his people from them, noting that the people have the rights to decide their own paths and destiny. Furthermore, he slammed the party for reneging on an understanding between them on allowing him to carry on championing green issues after spearheading the "Himpunan Hijau" (green gathering) movement in the 2013 general election. In addition, he praised his own track record serving as the Bentong MP from 2018 to 2022 for 4 years and renewing his strong commitment to serve Bentong and its people. Former Bentong MP Liow criticised DAP for dropping Wong, who he said had underperformed as the Bentong MP and likening this to stealing the chance of the Bentong voters to punish Wong by not voting for him, he also described DAP as opportunistic given its decision to drop underperformed incumbents as candidates for reelection to garner more votes. On 5 November 2022, as shown and proved by his previous response, he nominated himself as the independent candidate to contest for the Bentong seat in the election. He also added that following this, he was no longer a DAP member. He also criticised "party politics", citing that party members have to listen to the instructions of party leaders, but he only believes in "people's politics" and would only listen to the instructions of the people. He also revealed that he was using the symbol of hoe on the ballot papers and likening it as "using the hoe to open the ground, plant the seeds of hope" and hoping for the support of the people. In addition, he rendered his support to

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

, Chairman of the

(PH) and President of the People's Justice Party (PKR)

Anwar Ibrahim Anwar bin Ibrahim (; born 10 August 1947), also known by his abbreviation as DSAI and PMX, is a Malaysian politician who is the 10th prime minister of Malaysia since 2022. A member of the People's Justice Party (Malaysia), People's Justice P ...

as the prime minister candidate. In the election, Wong was not reelected as the Bentong MP for a second term after losing to Young Syefura of PH by a minority of 24,277 votes.

Election results

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Tack 1959 births Living people People from Pahang Malaysian politicians of Chinese descent Malaysian environmentalists Former Democratic Action Party (Malaysia) politicians Malaysian people of Hakka descent Malaysian MPs 2018–2022