We had Umno/BN nominated mayors for Ipoh for more than 30 years now. The rate-payers of Ipoh have had enough of this although membership or strong ties with Umno/BN does not mean that he or she is incompetent.

But in the case of Ipoh and which is in the minds of Ipoh rate-payers - rightly so - all Umno/BN mayor appointees are downright Umno/BN ‘boss-fearing’ administrators. They are committed to listen to their bosses instead of the rate-payers because their very existence depends solely on BN- notably Umno and nobody else.

What the rate-payers want now is to have local city elections in Ipoh reinstated. Why? First and foremost, it is because the Ipoh City Council - like all other local councils - are institutions which are entrusted to make by-laws and secondly, the most important reason is that they collect millions of ringgit in assessment taxes from the rate-payers annually. Thus transparency, accountability and competency must come into play.

Transparency, accountability, competency and the ability to act or speak out without fear of favour, regrettably, was never a trademark of Barisan Nasional’s appointees as we know and without these traits, we can never have an honest and effectively-run city or local councils.

At the present moment, M. Kulasegaran is the best candidate for the post of mayor of Ipoh. He has had a 14-year experience in dealing with the Ipoh City Council and other local councils in Perak. But if he is the mayor of Ipoh, his position is transitional and not permanent.

His task is to put into place the necessary legal requirements for the reinstatement of local/city council elections. There are two tasks needed to be overcome first. The first task is to amend the Local Government Act.

The second task is for the Election Commission to come up with a plan for local/city council elections. The delineation of local/city council constituencies is the most crucial and it is also a very difficult task.

The fact of the matter now is who is going to give the order for the Election Commission to do the second task? The BN government? It is not insurmountable if Pakatan Raykat forms the next federal government or if the BN government decides to support the reinstatement of the local/city councils elections.

What we have today are local councils and city council being cast as icons of an undemocratic institution. There is no reason whatsoever for these unelected local councils and city councils to exist in a democratic country.

If the government does not heed the call of the people for local government elections, then we are damned to have inefficient, boss-fearing mayors and councillors who do not give two hoots for the community.

In sum, what we need is an elected city council where policies and issues are reflective of people’s wishes and more importantly, there is no place for mediocre councillors. If mayors and councillors are appointed due to political considerations, they could not assume a transparent or an accountable role without jeopardising their positions in the councils.If they are found not toeing the line, they will be removed as quickly as they are appointed.

The new Pakatan Raykat government in Perak should not extend the present Ipoh mayor’s term when his tenure ends in June 2008 - not even a day! We do not want an Umno-fearing mayor.