The DAP public forum on the restoration of the local government election on Sunday elicited a wide range of suggestions, including getting the Kota Baru Municipal Council (MPKB) to partially elect its councillors.

A participant proposed that the MPKB in PAS-led Kelantan should lead the way in restoring the third vote by electing 12 out of its 24 municipal councillors.

Malaysian blogger Jeff Ooi had made the proposal as a way around the Local Government Act 1976 (LGA) which effectively outlawed local government elections following a nationwide suspension in take up.

"We have been witnessing the bastardisation of the LGA due to the non-compliance widely-practiced by the local authorities," he said during the Q&A session.

He also claimed that two local authorities in Selangor may have run foul of the LGA by having a salaried "25th councillor" when the law only provided for a president and 24 councillors.

A frustrated participant insisted that there was a "fourth level of government" in addition to the federal, state and local governments.

"This is where the developers and highway concessionaires decide on day-to-day road closures, detours and traffic light timers, things that directly affect us ratepayers."

Cannot depend on the court

The forum is part of the DAP's newly-launched national campaign to bring back local government elections after 40 years of being outlawed.

One outrageous idea was to meet the British monarch to bring back the third vote through military action.

"Our government has the right to point guns at us but we don't even have the right to vote for our local representatives," said a participant.

On another suggestion to amend the LGA, lawyer Ramdas Tikamdas who spoke on the legal aspect of local government elections at the forum, said the courts will be reluctant to make law.

"We cannot depend on the courts to do this. A change in the law can only be done by Parliament, and that requires a nationwide campaign turning the third vote into a public agenda for the next general election."

He explained how the suspension of local government elections following an emergency declaration on Sept 3 1964 is still in force till today.

"The suspension was executed through the enactment of the Emergency (Suspension of Local Government Elections) Regulations 1965 and Amendment Regulations 1965.

"In June 1965, the government commissioned the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Local Authorities (the Athi Nahappan Report) to study the operation of local authorities," he said.

He said the report, which strongly supported elected councils, should be adopted now.

The DAP has also submitted a memorandum to Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting and hopes to meet with Abdullah at the end of the campaign by year end.

Among the recommendations, said Ramdas, were for state capitals to be run by an elected local authority to be extended to all other local councils.

Allow for 'independents'

The report proposed for a single law applicable nationwide relating to the governing local authorities to be adopted and enforced within six months of being passed by Parliament.

He said the report proposed a decentralised body comprising a fully-elected membership and with financial and administrative autonomy that was only subject to state government control over national issues.

"Party politics should be allowed to continue despite its good and bad aspects, and candidates should continue to have the right to stand as 'independents'," said Ramdas, briefly summing up the report's salient points.

"The commission's recommendations were never adopted. After the Konfrontasi (of 1963 with Indonesia) came the 1969 racial clashes and a new declaration of emergency."

A participant also suggested mounting an international campaign because "most youngsters don't even know what the third vote is".

"We must tell the whole world that Malaysia does not have local government elections despite heading the Organisation of Islamic Conference and holding other high-profile positions in regional and international bodies."

Fielding a question from the floor, panelist Dr Goh Ban Lee with over 20 years experience in urban governance said people must ask for the structure plans and local plans to be gazetted.

"These documents must be gazetted in order to have a contractual status between the local authorities and ratepayers," said the Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer.

Sent to Conference of Rulers

There was also the view that local government election will not see the light of day in Kuala Lumpur because the temptation of money and power is great.

"The Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur refused to have local government elections because City Hall's budget is larger than that of state governments," claimed one participant.

Another suggestion was for petitions to restore the third vote to be sent to the Conference of Rulers for their consideration.

In response, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the campaign committee was planning to send a memorandum to all the state governments.

He said the suggestion about Kelantan and one about engaging members of Parliament to lobby for support were interesting propositions.

"In fact, we did try to invite Mohamed Zaid Ibrahim who had supported the restoration of the third vote but maybe he thought it would not be politically correct to attend this forum."

Zaid, the BN MP for Kota Baru and a Kelantan Umno leader, supports the initiative.

"We had also planned to invite the Subang Jaya state assemblyperson (Lee Hwa Beng) but he has not been too friendly with the DAP after the belly-dancing fiasco (in January)," said Lim.

"Let's start by sending postcards to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi first before we move on to petitioning the Conference of Rulers."

The DAP has printed 3,000 postcards urging the PM, in the country's four main languages, to restore the third vote "for democracy, good governance, rule of law, accountability and transparency".

Lim said the party will gauge the support among MPs when Parliament reconvenes next week.