Bring back local council elections
One can't talk about democracy when the people could not even decide how their neighbourhood is to be administered. Popular sovereignty would remain at best an ideal, at worst an illusion, if one is to be at the mercy of municipal bureaucrats, whom one has no right to hire or fire. Sadly, that is exactly the situation in Malaysia for about three decades, ever since all elected local councils were taken over by Barisan Nasional in the 1970s.
Indeed, such a situation make our call for democracy sounds ironic since the restoration of local elections has never been taken seriously as a prominent agenda. It is much like an educationist demanding for more universities when even primary schools are inadequate.
To be fair, the Opposition has never failed to list elections for local government in their manifestoes. But they don't go beyond that. That the Opposition is not keen to champion local self-governance is not surprising. While local governments fall under the jurisdiction of the state, the existing Local Government Act 1976 that governs local governments is a federal legislation.
When the opposition is weak, they know too well they have no chance of getting the Act amended in the BN-controlled Parliament. Being smart politicians, Opposition leaders, with some exception, would not waste time doing things that do not benefit them. After all, raising ethnic or religious issues would win them more publicity and popularity.
And when they are strong, they only pay lips service to the issue. But one wonders: If the people do not ask for change, would the politicians really want to kill a system that would benefit their cadres and supporters at the local level?
Theoretically, a local councillor earns a monthly allowance of RM300 to RM500 and an additional allowance of not exceeding RM250 monthly for attending council meetings. But there are other great unmentionable perks. Being a local councillor, you have a say in the council's expenditure - some council's budgets are larger than that of Perlis. You also decide which part of the town is to be developed. Most of all, you now have the resources to reward your supporters and please the voters so that you could run as MP or state assemblyperson in the next elections. Indeed, why abolishing such a "great" system?
However, the cost the people have to bear is great. First and foremost, there would be wastage and inefficiency, and the bureaucracy would ultimately leads to mismanagement of public funding. We have a lot of MPs or assemblypersons whose main expertise, amongst others, are really taking photos beside blocked drains and pointing fingers at uncollected rubbish. After performing such functions, voters would hail their "wonderful" work and forget about their performance in Parliament or Assembly. As such, more bills are passed without much scrutiny and debate.
Even a more severe consequence of unelected local councils is the tacit encouragement of ethnic politics. If local elections are held, politicians would have to focus on common local interests which cut across ethnic lines to attract more votes. The present situation, however, encourages the opposite. Having to woo support for their respective ethnic-based parties and having not to face voters of all ethnic groups as a whole, would mean ethnic or religious issues getting more airing.
The Opposition can play a role in making local council elections a national concern. In states governed by the Opposition parties, a lot can be done. If holding residents meetings to elect local councillors is considered too challenging, the state government could at least appoint the councils members from all parties based on the ratios of their popular votes in the general elections. True, Umno would never appoint local councillors from PAS or KeADILan. But if Barisan Alternatif claims to be different from Umno, its two state governments should set an example by appointing Umno and other BN members to take some of the local councillors' seats.
In other states, BA's MPs and state representatives, or even defeated candidates, shall form shadow local councils to compete with the BN-appointed local councils in serving the people. Besides, this will help educate the public about the distinctions between MPs, assemblypersons and local councillors, and ultimately the need for local elections. At present, BA PJ Utara has formed a shadow MPPJ while BA in Seputeh and a few other constituencies are working towards that.
However, a more important action would be a private member bill on local elections. BA has promised in its common manifesto under Section 2.1 "Ke Arah Politik Demokratik dan Adil"to introduce local elections. If they still stick to their words, then they should table a private member bill in the next Parliament session.
I have posed the request to KeADILan, DAP and PAS in three different public functions before and after the elections. While DAP has promised to do so without stating exactly when. However, KeADILan and PAS have failed to make such commitments. PAS Terengganu leaders said they would have to discuss the issue within BA. I sincerely hope the discussion will lead to action.
I would be very disappointed if anyone think that tabling such a private member bill is pointless. Tabling a private member bill will draw public attention and provoke national debate even if Parliament fails to endorse it . Terengganu Mentri Besar Abdul Hadi Awang who proposed a private member bill on the "murtad" issue, should certainly understand this well.
WONG CHIN HUAT is a columnist at the Chinese-language newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau .
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