The government is urged to implement local elections, and let the wind of democratisation start from Kota Kinabalu.

Under the 11th Malaysia Plan, the government would like to develop Kota Kinabalu into a ‘Growth Catalyst City’, but this goal would not be attained without the process of democratisation.

To make this dream come true, first thing that must do is to push for democratisation. And the first step towards democratisation is decentralisation, which means the delegation of power from the federal government to local government. Therefore, the local government must have the right to carry out local elections. This is the only way to ensure the rights of local residents.

The Sabah state government should start the implementation of local elections at Kota Kinabalu City Hall, and return the third vote to the people to elect their preferred candidate to become the mayor.

Only the person that given mandate by the people through their vote will be a mayor who is responsible and puts the people first as well as listens to the voice of people.

The main problems faced by people of Kota Kinabalu include traffic congestion and lack of parking space, and it is hoped that the traffic of Kota Kinabalu will not become as bad as in Kuala Lumpur.

When will the Foh Sang multi level parking lot be built as promised, as until now we have not heard anything about this project that can provide 500 parking space in the future?

Furthermore, the government should learn from Copenhagen, the Danish capital, which has complete bicycle lanes in the whole city. According to the Sabah Corridor project, our government will construct a bicycle lane which connects Tanjung Aru and University Malaysia Sabah and its length is 23.5km. But until now only a 5km-long bicycle lane had been completed, and it took seven years to build.

With this degree of  inefficiency, how long will it take the remaining 19.5km to be completed? How much of the RM17.5 million allocation has been spent so fat? If the government can’t even complete this kind of project, how about larger projects?

The public transport system of Kota Kinabalu is far behind Kuala Lumpur. Although the Kota Kinabalu City Council (DBKK) had drafted a blueprint for the public transportation of Kota Kinabalu, without an allocation from federal government, there is no way to fulfill the target.

Kota Kinabalu should have a complete and successful Bus Rapid Transit system which is widely used by many modern cities. This is our lowest demand, can our government fulfill it?

JIMMY WONG SZE PIN is Sabah DAP chairperson and MP for Kota Kinabalu.