The former Kangar Municipal Council president, who served four years until Oct 31, 2003, was charged with four counts of corruption, so said the report in the Star . In the report, the sum alleged to be involved is RM387,500, and this is the money belonging to the people.

The municipal council president and its members are chosen by the state government headed by the mentri besar, and as such they should be held accountable for the crimes and acts of corruption committed by local council members. The menteri besar should apologise to the people for his wrong choice of council members, and should even resign in shame - but then there is only silence from the mentri besar and the state government.

This is not the first time we are hearing about alleged corrupt acts by council members. There have been many reports in the media about such cases, abuse of power, the usage of money for unnecessary things, and yet the government of the day still maintains the system of councillor appointments, rather than reverting back to elections.

If the rakyat (people) are given the opportunity to elect local council members, I believe that more principled persons will be chosen. And the fact that they are elected by the people will also make them more accountable to the rakyat .

Few are caught with their hands in the cookie jar, or with sufficient evidence to show that their hands were in the cookie jar, but many out there have yet to be caught, investigated and/or charged in court.

We now have a royal commission for the police, and that is a first step. Maybe we need to set up another commission for the local councils and later on for some other group. This may never end and we may very well end up with tens or hundreds of royal commissions at the end of the day, all of whom will end up making recommendations only.

We need an independent, permanent body to deal with corruption, which will have also the power to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators. This body must be transparent and accountable to the people, and to the Parliament.