Johor DAP welcomes the decision of the Johor state government to increase the allowance of local council members and hopes that the BN-led government can eventually hold local elections.

Menteri Besar Mohamed Khaled Nordin had announced on June 28 that the Johor state government has already decided to increase the allowance of local council members, although the amount of the increment hasn’t been revealed yet.

Nonetheless, it is definitely a great encouragement to every appointed councilor that their hard work can be paid off with equivalent allowances. We also hope that with the increment, all the councilors regardless their political affiliations can serve the residents better and not react to issues passively.

Besides that, it is also important to acknowledge that a local authority is actually an important institution to keep democracy working. Without an election to allow residents to vote for their respective representatives to voice out in the local council, it is a great defeat of our democratic system.

How can local councilors who are not elected but merely appointed by a party with fewer popular votes in the last general election decide on the daily issues that residents encounter everyday?

Healthy competition will make our democracy work better, if BN component parties have confidence in their track record of serving the people at the local council level, they have no reason to reject the proposal of having local elections. In fact, local elections are the best chance to prove their ability to serve the people, which they claim they are more capable of than the opposition.

Therefore, we urge the BN-led Johor government to follow the path of both the Penang and Selangor state governments to pressure the federal government into amending the laws to enable local elections.

WONG SHU QI (Suki) is Senai state representative and Johor DAP policy director.