The absence of local government elections is one of the reasons for poor engagement and communication between local councils and ratepayers, DAP’s Pulau Tikus assemblyperson Yap Soo Huey said today.

Without the local council elections, Yap said, there was also a lack of personnel dedicated to conduct face-to-face or personal engagements with residents affected by council policies.

“I am offering an opportunity to pilot a different way for the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) to operate, for councillors to meet and engage with the residents, to discuss and resolve the problems they face,” she told Malaysiakini when contacted.

“The effect of us not having local elections has disabled proper engagement  and communication between the people and the local council. This has also affected the quality of service to the people,” she added.

Currently, the councillors include NGO representatives and they are appointed by political parties in the ruling coalition, which sometimes gives the impression that they are in the post more for their political links than for their merits.

Yap’s grouse comes in the wake of the refusal by DAP representatives in the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) to sign a petition organised by Parti Sosialis Malaysia to promote local government elections that have been in practise since 1951 and ceased by the federal government from March 1, 1965.

Penang challenging issue in court

The councillors declined to sign the petition on grounds that the Penang government is currently challenging the federal government in court to negate Section 15 of the Local Government Act 1976, which nullifies all local government elections.

Penang has tried to restore local council elections through the gazetting of the Local Government Elections (Penang Island and Province Wellesley) Enactment on July 5, 2012 but the federal government has blocked its implementation.

In a press conference at her service centre earlier, Yap said she had conducted cultural mapping sessions with community representatives in her Pulau Tikus constituency, which she won for the time in the last year’s May 5 general election.

She said more of such sessions would be conducted later this month to further understand the needs and wants of the local community.

 

She proposed a new model to change how the MPPP works, with a special team of officers appointed to be involved in public consultation sessions to learn about the needs and practices of the community.

The aim of this will be to develop people-centric infrastructure and re-design the Pulau Tikus business district to address existing problems, such as development pressures caused by poor planning, traffic and mobility problems.

“The need for a comprehensive study and planning for the Pulau Tikus business district is now at a critical stage,” Yap said, adding that she submitted her proposal to the MPPP last week and was told it would be responded to after the release of the council’s 2015 Budget in August.

Nevertheless, she praised MPPP and the Seberang Perai Municipal Council for their efforts to get community feedback by circulating a form for feedback before the preparation of their budgets for 2015.

However, this is not sufficient to truly understand the people’s needs as the online feedback form is not comprehensive enough to understand the needs of the people, Yap said.

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