I cannot agree more with the letter which lamented that Penang state assembly representatives have got it all wrong by turning up the volume on what are mainly municipal complaints in the state assembly instead of formulating answers.

Let's look at the damage this causes - the state government is discredited because the job of the city council is left at its doorstep simply because they (the government) appointed the councillors in the first place.

But would the state government like the idea of being toppled just because they are found to have been wrong in appointing the wrong people to head the cleanliness committee of the city council? Is this fair to them? Shouldn't a state government be chosen on the strength of policies and performance?

From here it can be seen that the exploitation of municipal issues by state assemblypersons are nothing more than self-serving publicity stunts essentially done at the expense of the same Barisan Nasional of which these assemblypersons are a part of.

From a certain perspective it can be said that the above exploitation is 'structural' in contrast to being 'partisan'. I say this because in a sense, one part of the BN government is fighting another part of the same BN government!

No wonder the Penang state government has over time 'self-cultivated' a bad name for itself and without any help from the opposition too.

State assemblypersons tend to exploit their higher positions to interfere into council affairs which often result in the non-implementation of many sensible council regulations like cleaning up hawkers areas. The cumulative results are the familiar 'filthy Penang' complaints.

The same assemblypersons will then have no qualms about their hypocrisy in taking the state government to task in the state legislative assembly sitting about the city council's inefficiency.

State governments should recognise the liability of holding onto local governments without allowing the councillors to obtain their mandate. While the appointment system allows the control of local government for partisan benefits, this power also come with responsibilities which, if not discharged properly, will turn into liabilities.

Indeed, if one were to do a cursory survey of the media, it can easily found that upwards of 80 percent of complaints and negative reports are municipal issues.

When it is suspected that some section of Umno is after the Selangor menteri besar, municipal land development issues are used to trap the MB. When MCA is attempting to wrest Penang's chief ministership from Gerakan, they point their fingers at the Penang chief minister as though MCA's councillors have nothing to do with the municipal mess in the state.

Fancy the idea that one day BN may fall because the CM or MB of a state is blamed for not collecting garbage efficiently in the centre of town as speculated above?

The foregrounding of trivial or petty municipal issues in the state legislative assembly cannot but mean that serious state and federal issues are put on hold or given less of the scrutiny and debate that they deserve.

To be popular an unprincipled politician will attend to the gutter issues and gutter politics not to the other bigger issues like the serious states of the national/state economies or human rights. And who other than the state and federal governments, apart from the people, who will lose out finally?

Without the many municipal complaints being heaped on the state and federal politicians' desks, surely many BN politicians would feel a great relief? So why not let the people choose their own local government representatives and let these elected councillors - whichever party they may be from - deal with the local municipal issues?

It is in the interest of any state government - whether from the BN or the opposition - to now let go of the 'hot potato' that local governments have proven to be. They should do the right thing when it comes to choosing between losing all levels of government on account of municipal complaints or keeping the state governments by giving up the local governments.