COMMENT | On the election campaign trail in the past, one politician is used to thumping his chest and saying to a selected audience: “I am Padayappa” – a Hindu God who stayed in six hill stations in India with six different temples across Tamil Nadu dedicated to him.

“I am not a Tamil. I am a Malay, I am not MIC, I am Umno”, he is shown on one of the many videos on YouTube.

“But my heart, soul and blood and what’s beneath my skin are with the (Tamil) people,” he says in Tamil. For good measure, former premier Najib Abdul Razak’s name is brought into the picture and told his audience that Najib has not forgotten the Tamil people.

Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim is an orator – fluent in Bahasa Malaysia and his mother tongue, Tamil. Perhaps his experience as a car salesperson has become handy.

But unlike the streets and showrooms, speaking in Parliament is different. He had many encounters in the august House including...