Democracy is not all lost, at least that was what the presence of both Barisan Nasional (BN) and opposition candidates vying for the Petaling Selatan parliamentary and state constituencies proved today.

The four candidates were invited to dialogue with parishioners of the St Francis Xavier's Church in Petaling Jaya.

The parliamentary candidates are the incumbent and engineer Donald Lim and his challenger Keadilan vice-president, R Sivarasa, a lawyer and human rights advocate.

Incumbent for the Bukit Gasing state seat, Dr Lim Thuang Seng, will face political greenhorn, John Chung of the DAP.

Both incumbents won their seats by over 3,800 and 1,000 votes respectively.

Candidates for Taman Medan, the other state seat under PJ Selatan facing a four-cornered fight, were not present.

Although the turnout was rather disappointing with less than 100 people, including the candidates' entourage, the questions posed reflected the unresolved problems faced by PJ residents.

Leasehold titles

After the routine "why you should vote me in" and "if I win, I will...", candidates outlined their plans for the constituents over the next five years.

Leasehold land titles dominated almost each of the candidate's 12-minute speech as well as the question-and-answer session.

On the long-standing problem of leasehold titles, particularly in the older sections of PJ, Lim said he and his BN counterpart Dr Lim had obtained approval for 560 families' leasehold titles. The premium for 190 of them were at 50 percent less.

In his speech, Dr Lim explained how he negotiated with the Selangor menteri besar to reduce the premium rate and to arrange for staggered payment and bank loans.

Dr Lim's opponent, Chung, said he was prepared to tackle the problem of traffic congestion and work towards restoring local elections (which was scrapped in 1965).

Despite being a young graduate on his maiden attempt at mainstream politics, he believed he knew what PJ needed most - major reforms in order to improve its inhabitants' quality of life.

"I grew up here. I know what the problems are and I can think of how to resolve them but your support and participation is necessary," he appealed.

Air time request

The first thing Sivarasa did when he took the podium was to ask Donald Lim for 30 minutes of daily air time on national television for all opposition candidates throughout the campaign period which ends midnight Saturday.

By having the deputy information minister portfolio, he said Lim could easily arrange for the opposition to go on air about their election manifesto.

"I'm merely expanding on Lim's opening remarks about democracy in Malaysia. This would be a good time to show that it is still alive," he said, drawing loud cheers from the floor.

"We all know that opposition messages are not reaching the people through the government-controlled media."

In echoing Chung's views on the quality of life in PJ, Sivarasa said the deterioration was replicated and magnified at the national level.

"That is why it is important to have a bigger opposition voice in Parliament. We need the substantial voice to perform adequate checks and balances on the government of the day, or else the prevailing problems will only worsen."

Poser on incinerator

Posing questions from the floor, S Selvanathan, legal advisor for the now-disbanded Puchong residents action committee that opposed the incinerator project proposed in Puchong, asked Donald Lim to guarantee that it would not return to haunt them after the elections.

"The KL draft structure plan contains a clause that says an incinerator has been planned at the same place. Can the BN pledge before polling day to officially scrap the project?"

Dr Lim chose to reply by saying that Malaysians should understand waste management problems in a country that is fast-approaching developed nation status.

"Can the people commit not to generate garbage then?" he posed in return. "This is the reality that we are faced with. Garbage is piling up and there is no other way to dispose it."

Two BN supporters also questioned Sivarasa and Chung on how they planned to implement the reforms for PJ.

"Firstly, the problems PJ is facing right now should not even exist. So, how can you ask me for ways to clean up the mess created by the BN government?" Sivarasa replied, followed by loud applause.

After the dialogue ended, several parishioners were upset that the two BN supporters who posed the questions got away with what they described as attempts to trap the opposition candidates.

'No perfect government'

The candidates were also asked their stand on the Islamic state issue and the gradual Islamisation plans by PAS for the whole country.

Sivarasa reiterated that Keadilan's stand has always been to reject a theocratic state and uphold a democractic and pluralistic society.

"But these do not appear in the media," he noted. There were also moments when the BN candidates took a not-so-gentle swipe against the opposition coalition, especially the partnership with PAS.

Both the BN candidates kept repeating that no government in the world was perfect and that to err was only human.

"At the end of the day, voters have to consider carefully whether the government can bring progress, prosperity and peace to its people," said Dr Lim.

Other problems revolved around PJ's perennial traffic troubles of over-development, policy mismanagement at the local level leading to environmental degradation and bad town planning, and wastage of resources.