A Penang municipal councillor  has expressed frustration over the ‘extremely unhappy’ relationship between the state government and the municipal council.

NONE Lim Kah Cheng ( right ), who was appointed a councillor under the NGO quota to serve the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) lamented that the state treated councillor s like civil servants, which should not be the case.

“The relationship between the state and the municipal council is an extremely unhappy one,” she admitted at a forum on Freedom of Information Act, organised by the Coalition for Good Governance Penang on Saturday.

“We are another government, which is called the third tier. But I like to call it the first tier because whatever we decide affects all of you Penangites,” she told the 200-odd participants at the event.

“This problem arose when local government was suspended in 1965, after which, local councillors were selected by the state and have since become the third arm of the government,” she added.

Lim, who is a lawyer and a well-known activist for the Women’s Centre for Change, also defended the councillors and civil service against those who constantly complained about their inefficiency.

“I must say that after being involved with the civil service for almost two and a half years, it is actually not all their fault (for being slow and inefficient),” Lim told the crowd of about 200 people that night.

Civil servants demoralised

“They (civil servants) are extremely demoralised by politicians; politicians will say ‘go, go, go and tear down (that building)’ and then it is politicians who telephone and say ‘stop,’ so where is the direction?” she asked.

penang pulau pinang old heritage pre war buildings 160307 01 She said that civil servants were reprimanded all the time for the work that they do or do not do, while councillors continue to tell them to enforce the law accordingly.

“Sometimes they are told to bring the matter to the state, but it is absolutely wrong to go through the state to enforce any laws,” said Lim.

“That is a wrong jurisdiction as the Local Government Act says that the state authority can only give direction on a general character (of the law), but they cannot order us and go into details,” she added.

She gave an example of how building plans by some developers were rejected by the council but were later approved by the state .

“(This is because) the state government acts like an appellate court, that is not their right, it is legally wrong,” she said.

“But then because they select the councillors, who are party-affiliated, at the end of the day the state decides,” added Lim, who is a strong opponent of the controversial RM50 mil mega-project of the Penang International Convention Centre.

NONE Lim was responding to a co-panel speaker Tangjung Bungah Residents Association president George Aeria, who criticised civil servants for their insolence and poor attitude when dealing with the public.

Aeria, who has intensively campaigned against hillside development in Tangjung Bungah ( right ), slammed the government of not sacking civil servants who performed badly.

“The (reason the) civil service so bloody inefficient and so slow is because you cannot sack them,” said Aeria, who was visibly upset at this group of officials.

“If the public go and talk to them and ask them to do things, they don’t give you information. They give you the run around. If you ask them for minutes of meetings because your request has been lagging behind for months, they say it (minutes) are (protected by the) Official Secrets Act,” he added.

NONE During his presentation, Aeria  ( left ) had also condemned the state for not having enough control over the municipal council, a comment that apparently ruffled municipal councillor Lim.

 “I do not think our state government is in control of our municipal councils, the state government goes right, municipal council goes left, while the council in the mainland (MPSP) is still very Barisan Nasional,” Aeria said.

“If I am not wrong, councillors are having a tough time. The only way to manage people who do not want to follow you is to sack them, and the problem with civil servants is that you cannot sack them,” he added.