YOURSAY ‘The ‘threat of violence’ is created by those who fear losing elections.’

BN minister backs Hadi on local government polls

The Analyser: Local government is an area where the government interacts with the population more than any other form of government.

Because of its close association with the people, it is the level of government that should be the most democratic.

Local government is also the training ground for politicians where empathy with the people is most important and the affiliation with political parties is of lesser consequence.

Local government is also the place where people with a social conscience can help their fellow men and women.

So it's no wonder that BN and PAS are so much against elections at the local level because both stand for none of the above.

Rojak: Yes, what abject nonsense (from Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan).

If people vote along racial lines then surely it only reflects exactly what the federal government wants them to do.

If local officials do not perform then regular elections is a better way of bringing in replacements than the shaky hand of central government.

If natural disasters warrant a national emergency, then one can be declared without delay.

The minister's desperate excuses for not wanting to give up an iota of central power ring very hollow indeed.

Chee Hoe Siew: The "potential threat of violence" is created by those who fear losing elections and they use racialism to try to retain power.

Asitis: “In those countries, a declaration of emergency by the federal government is needed before federal government assistance can be extended to the local government areas of authority. This leads to delay and slow respond to disasters, such as the massive flood recently,” said Rahman.

But what is the point of this when in Malaysia, the federal government refused to declare a state of emergency in one of the worst floods the country had ever faced, with the pretentious excuse of being concern for the victims being unable to claim insurance?

ByebyeBN: Indeed, the greatest risk and threat to racial polarisation is Umno.

'Rahman’s twisted logic would end all elections'

Lamborghini: Rahman, who is from Sabah, should know better. It is unbecoming of him as a minister from Sabah to so quickly be contaminated by the racial virus of Umno and Perkasa and thus look at every issue from a racial point of view.

In Sabah, there is genuine mutual respect and acceptance of one another irrespective of race and religion, although it is becoming more and more like Peninsular Malaysia ever since the entry of Umno into Sabah.

PKR leader Latheefa Koya is absolutely right. If that is the basis of Rahman’s objection to local town council elections, the same basis will apply to every kind of election in Malaysia.

It is time that local councils are elected by the rakyat and that they be held accountable to the rakyat rather than to the political masters who appointed them to their positions.

Proarte: Brace ourselves for more rubbish from PAS. Now local democracy, according to party president Abdul Hadi Awang, will bring about racial riots. Earlier PAS had us believe that democracy was consistent with Islam.

We are sick and tired of being taken for idiots by corrupt politicians like Hadi, who hide under the cover of Islam to promote a crooked agenda.

Saying that making local government officials accountable to the people through elections will bring about racial riots must surely rank as one of the stupidest things to be uttered by a politician.

That it is done by a Malay and a Muslim is unfortunate as increasingly people in Malaysia making the most stupid, illogical, incendiary and racially bigoted comments have been Malay and Muslim thus confirming negative stereotypes about them.

It is about time that those Malays who are not fooled to come out in large numbers and repudiate all this nonsense done in their name. If Malays remain silent, then they should not be surprised if negative perceptions of them and Islam remain.

Kingfisher: Hadi would lose whatever little remained of his reputation as a senior politician and statesman by such retarded form of logic against some of the very best practices for promoting and protecting fundamental rights of ordinary people.

Local council elections in countries like the United Kingdom have often proven to be the most effective bastions for protecting the well-being of ordinary people against abuses arising out of the vested interests of national political power structures.

The discontinuation of local council elections after 1976 is perhaps one of the main reasons for increasing disparity in distribution of wealth, income and wastage of public resources in the country.

The domineering presence of the BN, which is not always good, could have been democratically moderated otherwise.

Basically: If May 13 is the reason, then I say, make some illogical law that the mayor must be Malay/Muslim (just like the MB).

I am willing to accept that moronism - this is Malaysia after all - so long as I can vote for my mayor and he/she is forced to work hard to show us why he/she deserves to be there.

Rahman shows utter contempt for democracy

You can’t have democracy without local polls

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