In an exclusive interview with FMT, Norhizam said he was capable of resolving various issues faced by Pengkalan Batu quickly and wanted to be re-elected to address several more problems.
This time, he is running as an independent candidate, after being elected on a Pakatan Harapan ticket in 2018 as a DAP member.
The former executive councillor, who courted controversy due to several outbursts and uncouth remarks in the past, said Pengkalan Batu was essentially a village in the city, which meant that there were many urban poor.
These people needed elected representatives who were willing to “enslave” themselves to their constituents and to go to the ground without caring about protocols, he said.
“If I am told today that someone needs a wheelchair, by evening we would have given it. If today they say they need a mattress, by tomorrow we would have given them a mattress. If today they need to repair their roof, in three days’ time we would have appointed a contractor and fixed their roof. And it’s not just a few people. In Pengkalan Batu alone, we have repaired the roofs of more than 100,000 people.
“All this while, they’ve never had an elected representative like me. Thank God, after I became the assemblyman and executive councillor, I did all this,” he said.
One of his rivals in the Nov 20 elections is a 25-year-old DAP candidate. Norhizam said voters would be unsure as to what young politicians like Muhammad Danish Zainudin could contribute to constituents.
“But Datuk Norhizam has already served the people. I have already done the work, I am proven. They say they want to serve, but Datuk Norhizam has already served the people of Pengkalan Batu.”
Norhizam also denied being a “frog” or “traitor”, pointing out that he had only quit Pakatan Harapan after its state administration had been toppled following the exit of three exco members, namely Mohd Rafiq Naizamohideen, Muhammad Jailani Khamis and Noor Effandi Ahmad.
He added that he crossed the aisle but remained an independent as he wanted to serve his constituents better, something he said was tougher without the allocations a government assemblyman would get.
“I was not the cause of the state government’s fall. I went to the other side because I wanted my voters to be comfortable.
“We could continue having our community service centre and slightly bigger allocations. Thankfully, we could continue serving the people of Pengkalan Batu,” he said. “But I was independent, and until now I remain independent.”