The stepping down of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is marred, at least in our view, by his insistence on keeping the Malaysian local governments to BN political appointees, as reported in the local press. This is done, strangely enough, on the excuse of keeping politics out of local governments.
It seems that the PM's best judgement is that appointing BN party members to be councillors of local government is not 'politics', while letting people choose who to become councillors is 'politics'! What a strange logic from an 'experienced elder statesman' - as some accolades to the veteran politician would have it.
It is also strange that the original premise for scrapping local government elections, among others, was to improve the efficiency of local council administrations. It is clear as daylight now that the aim has not been achieved. BN's own leader from the PPP recently criticised local governments for being 'spoilt'!
The reason has probably more to do with the original diagnosis that politics was the cause behind the ills of local government. And by scrapping local government elections, 'politics' would somehow continue unabated - perhaps it has been this 'non-elective' politics which best fit the bill as the type of corrosive politics that shelter local government (in)efficiencies.
If the above is Dr M's sincere understanding of 'politics', that may explain why, where he cannot scrap elections at state and parliament levels he has treated them with contempt!
The two levels of elected institutions has not been accorded the status as the supreme decision-making bodies in the land - resulting in a major part of crucial decisions made in the ruling parties' central committees, if not by the old man himself.
On this account, shall we bid a good farewell to Dr M and his confusing - or shall we say, unashamedly self-interested - understanding of 'politics' this Friday ?
The Malaysian Local Democracy Initiative (Malodi) calls upon the new prime minister to reinstitute elected local governments as a test stone to the new regime's sincerity towards improving Malaysian governance.
