Local council elections must be revived to eliminate bad practices such as corruption and nepotism, said Amanah president Mohamad Sabu.

Speaking at the Pakatan Harapan leadership summit in Shah Alam today, Mohamad said elections will also ensure that the people's interests trump politics.

“With local council elections, local councillors will be responsible to the people, not the party,” he said.

The Amanah president, fondly known as Mat Sabu, said this is the hope of Pakatan Harapan.

His remarks come amid a tussle over local council seats in Selangor.

Amanah had asked for 24 local council seats, but was only granted eight.

Besides getting rid of bad practices, Mohamad said local council elections was also a great way to create new leaders.

He cited examples such as Indonesian President Joko Widodo, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who all rose from being mayors to their country’s leaders.

Earlier in his speech, Mohamad stressed the importance of abandoning racial politics.

“This doctrine of racism has been programmed by the country’s rulers [...] we must break free of this.

“One way to remedy our rulers is to change them during the next general election.

“The current leaders need to be changed, not advised,” he said, taking a potshot at his former party PAS.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had previously said that the Islamist party wished to become Umno’s advisers.

PAS and Umno have drifted closer together since Pakatan Rakyat’s breakup, and Hadi and Umno president Najib Abdul Razak have both talked about working together for Malay-Muslim interests.