INTERVIEW | May 9, 2018, was a momentous day that changed lives for many Malaysians as the BN government was toppled through the ballot box. Lost among the hustle and bustle of the historic change was one of the many small stories that unfolded that night.

In the battle for the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat, MIC’s deputy education minister P Kamalanathan was thumped by the relatively unknown June Leow Hsiad Hui of PKR. Leow polled 40,783 votes while Kamalanathan got 27,392 and Wan Mat Sulaiman of PAS bagged a tally of 16,620.

Since those heady days, Leow has been settling into her role as a government backbencher. It’s fair to say that she isn’t the most visible of MPs but she tells Malaysiakini in an email interview that she’s not out to score popularity points but to...