As a ranking official of consumer movements, he issued more than 3,000 press releases on hot issues between 1971 and 1986 at a rate of three statements per week.
Today, he writes long, short, serious, funny and insightful letters as a lone crusader.
His musings are mostly on government action or inaction, energy conservation, climate change, children’s rights, respect for the elderly, good neighbourliness and sporting joy or despair.
There is also the nerve to step on people’s toes and “make a nuisance of myself”.
Bulbir, who turns 81 in October, now plies English dailies with three or four letters a week, making him a byword in the press.
“The itch to write on matters of public importance is a part of my life and I believe some good has come of it,” he said in an interview at his house in Kajang, adding, “I will continue making a nuisance of myself.”
His civic consciousness and constructive criticism stems from the multiple roles he has undertaken at different periods in his life: temporary teacher, consumer and social activist, politician, town councillor and children’s court advisor.
In his move to reach out to a wider segment of society, the former Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) senior trainer (non-technical), learned to read Jawi from a Chinese friend in the 80s.
His feat was featured in Utusan Melayu, the now defunct Malay daily that was printed in the Jawi script.
Soon, he had a consumer rights column in Utusan Malaysia, “Panduan Penguna” (Consumer Guide) that created awareness among Malays to protect their right to fair and honest trading, to safe and wholesome products, and to a sound and healthy physical environment.
This month marks Bulbir’s first missive in the letters page of The Straits Times as a 12-year-old, 69 years ago.
His bus driver father, the late Joginder Singh, encouraged him to write about the lack of cleanliness in Seremban and in front of his school, St Paul’s Institution (Primary). The state secretary ordered a clean-up and the passion to write emerged.
Since then, he has written thousands of words about social and business injustice, environmental neglect and the concerns of the man on the street.
As co-founder of the Consumers’ Association of Negeri Sembilan (CANS) and the Seremban-based Citizens’ Action Group, Bulbir acted fearlessly.
Editors in the 70s-80s used his letters as leads to uncover business malpractices, misleading advertising and shoddy public amenities, many of which resulted in better government oversight of consumer affairs.
While the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) was the most active organisation and got regularly quoted by major newspapers, Bulbir was also hands-on on issues such as price control, sub-standard goods, profiteering and exploitation of hire purchase.
Bulbir often professed that consumer education should be a long-term policy, with constant reminders about the rights of consumers: the right to safety, to be heard, to choose, to be informed, and the right to quality and integrity in the marketplace.
A mini-celebrity of sorts among mediapersons of the pre-internet age, Bulbir surprised senior consumer advocates by making the cover of then premier business magazine, Malaysian Business in August 1975.
In an eight-page spread, headlined, “Bulbir Singh – Crusading Consumer”, the then clerk with the National Electricity Board (now TNB), lashed out for better laws and protection for consumers in Malaysia.
Bulbir said he was pleased that several of his letters and campaigns with CANS, which in the early 70s operated with a chronically tiny government annual grant of RM250, had provoked landmark results.
He said they included making it compulsory for perishable goods to be date-marked with expiry dates; regulations to ensure consumers got fair value for money; measures to protect people who buy goods on hire purchase; and legislation to curtail abuses by pawnbrokers.
Long before newspapers boasted ‘price watch’ sections, Bulbir went snooping to nab unscrupulous Seremban wet market traders, especially those manipulating the dacing (weighing scale) before metrication was introduced in the early 80s.
Despite being threatened with harm, he often zoomed around town in his Lambretta scooter to check different brands of similar products, with the same nutritive value, sold at varying prices.
Did Bulbir ever need help with a problem?
In 2005, he had a shock when an error in his new MyKad made him a Muslim. His letter to the editor on his plight became a national story.
“The word Islam was printed under my picture although I have a turban and beard. They rectified the mistake but I reasoned the identity card should be error-free,” he said.
Do letters to the editor still matter?
“Social media and forums are free of professional oversight as they offer instant reaction to whatever irks or excites.
“A free-for-all occurs when there’s no editorial process and I’d hate to think that social commentary will ever replace letters to editor,” Bulbir said.
He said the letters section of reliable newspapers and digital news sites provided a social pulse on the health of a nation.
Bulbir said his wife Gurcharan and their four daughters and a son were fully supportive of his continuing crusade to highlight problems and to contribute positively to the solution of those snags.
On his 80th birthday, his daughter-in-law, Har Jessica Kaur converted a 2005 New Straits Times article into an edible image on his birthday cake “as if to tell me to carry on writing.”
Bulbir has retained a copy of most of his letters in more than a dozen files for a possible book which he hopes to leave as a legacy for his children and nine grandchildren.