BN’s Abdul Rahman Dahlan may disagree on many issues with PAS’ Hadi Awang, but he has backed the PAS chief's rejection of local government elections.

 

The urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister may not go as far as Hadi ( below ) in stating it will lead to racial riots, but Abdul Rahmand said he believes it puts Malaysia at greater risk of racial polarisation.

 

Malaysians, he argued, still largely vote based on their racial background, which will be evident during local government elections.

 

“This will happen in urban settings, as well as rural local authorities.

"This will lead to racial animosity and distrust.

 

“I hope DAP could learn from history and understand the complexities,” Abdul Rahman said today in a Facebook post.

 

The Kota Belud MP also claimed that having local government election would also lead to higher local taxes.

 

He said this happens because “elected officials have more autonomy and (will) exercise their power”.

 

“As it is, the federal government provides RM300 million through my ministry in allocation to local governments to help them administer and develop their areas,” he added.

 

Abdul Rahman said appointing gives flexibility for state governments to remove those who don’t perform.

 

“One of them is the ability for the state governments to replace ineffective officers immediately, which otherwise could only be done in the next election,” he said.

 

Another advantage, he argues, is the “seamless administration of both state government and local government”.

The PAS president had yesterday warned DAP, its Pakatan Rakyat partner, that the latter's ambition to bring back local elections may lead to another May 13 race riots as such ideas lead to instability, widening the gap between villages and towns.

Hadi further said local elections would only benefit the town folk and marginalise surrounding villages, as in the politics of managing a town, we should consider all quarters and sections (of society) which contribute to the town’s prosperity.

“Therefore, the local government elections championed by DAP returns to an old mistake which only looks to the towns to win elections in a short time,” Hadi had said.

Elected counsellors may hamper aid

Using the recent worst flood disaster as an example, Abdul Rahman said in some countries because local authorities are elected through elections, they have jurisdiction in terms of natural calamities which could hamper the ability of the federal or state governments to step in immediately.

“In those countries, a declaration of emergency by the federal government is needed before federal government assistance can be extended to the local government areas of authority.

“This leads to delay and slow respond to disasters such as the massive flood recently,” he reasoned.

The PAS supremo's statement has led an NGO, the Coalition of Good Governance (CGG), to question whether Hadi's view had resulted in local government elections having not been implemented in Selangor yet.

Local government elections had been one of the promises made by the Pakatan-led government.

The third vote - or local government elections - were once allowed as early as in 1951, but this was later prohibited following several proclaimed emergencies.

It was previously reported that Penang had passed the Local Government Elections (Penang Island and Province Wellesley) Enactment 2012, which allows for the return of the third vote.

However, in trying to compel the Election Commission to conduct the local government elections, Penang faced a barrier following the apex court's decision that declared Sections 10 and 15 of the Local Government Act 1976 - which the Penang government and another was challenging - as constitutional.

Section 10 is regarding the appointment of councillors and mayors, while Section 15 is about holding local government elections ceasing to have effect.

The decision by the Federal Court has a binding effect to all local and state governments.