The new Board Member of the Kuala Lumpur Chinese Assembly Hall (KLCAH) has been elected. Datuk Seri Dr. Chai Kee Kan has been re-elected as the President of KLCAH for 2021-2024, continue to lead KLCAH to contribute to the nation and the Chinese community.
In the past two term (2015-2018 and 2018-2021), Datuk Seri Dr. KK Chai was the President of KLCAH. He has been leading KLCAH engaged in activities from Kuala Lumpur to the national level over the past six years and has played a pivotal role in the Chinese community.
The KLCAH held its general meeting on Saturday, 23rd March, apart from the re-election, amendments were also made to the constitution, to increase the number of Board Member from 25 to 33 so that more people could join and contribute to the Chinese community and to expand the group to include more people with high prestige and standing in the community, professionals, and young talents.
The new Board Member, with the Honorary Presidents and Founding President Datuk Liew Poon Siak and The Late Datuk Liew Kon Seng; and Honorary Advisor Tan Sri Datuk Tee Hock Seng JP, Tan Sri Dato Seri Panglima Lee Lam Thye, Tan Sri Dato Lim Soon Peng, Datuk Seri Michael Chong Ten Soo JP, Dato Sri Dr How Kok Choong JP, and Datuk Ng Thien Phing.
The Deputy President is Dato Sri Lee Wan Beng; the Vice President are Dato Liew Bin, Dato Alex Wong Che Sing, Dato Goh Gaik Meng JP, Prof Dr Ng Po Kok, Mr. Tan Chuan Yong, Mr. Lim Lay Hooi as well as Mr. Kevin Kan Kiat Siong (Youth wing) and Ms. Ada Poon Yin Hoong (Wanita wing).
In his speech, Datuk Seri Dr. KK Chai said that in the past two years, although the country has been facing the Covid-19 pandemic, the KLCAH has not stopped but continued to develop its services for the country and the people, including the launch of the Charitable and Social Complaints Bureau, led by Legal advisor Dato Michael Wong Meng San and Secretary-General Mr. See Foo Hoong, to assist those who seek help in solving “odd problems”.
“Before the pandemic, we had already promoted numerous charitable activities, including delivery of goods to indigenous, Bumiputeras, Malay and Indian compatriots, and during the pandemic, we continued to carry out various charitable activities to support people and families in need from all races.”
He said that while many Chinese organizations were hibernating due to the pandemic, KLCAH did not let the pandemic stop it and continued to play its role.
“KLCAH also became the first Chinese organization in Kuala Lumpur who promote vaccination programme, organizing two vaccination campaigns, myMedic@Wilayah, in July of this year, the pursuit of well-being for its members for free, vaccinating a total of 2,200 people to secure the Malaysian lives and health.”
On the Budget 2022, Datuk Seri Dr. KK Chai urged the government to focus on the difficulties faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and to provide special financial assistance packages to support them, to avoid the wave of closures and prevent the country from facing a high unemployment rate, he said.
“We also suggest the government to continue to implement salary subsidies and staff training incentive schemes, and to implement incentives such as tax deductions and tax exemptions to allow businesses to play the role of an economic powerhouse that will continue to boost the country’s economy and provides jobs, and to provide special assistance to the tourism industry to help them get back on track as soon as the industry is reopened.”
He said, our country had suffered economic losses of more than RM500 billion since the total lockdown last year, with the tourism industry alone losing RM130 billion last year and expected to lose even more this year; the construction industry had suffered losses of RM42 billion since the country’s first lockdown last year; and SMEs had lost RM40.7 billion last year.
He reaffirmed that our country is a multi-racial and multi-cultural nation, and all races have their own culture, food, and living habits. Therefore, everyone should be considerate and respectful towards each other.
“The government and the national leaders need to be open-minded and not destroy the existing harmonious relationship between our communities and bring the country’s development to a halt to please a small group of narrow-minded radicals.”