Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim) pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar today backed Party Progressive Party (PPP) president M Kayveas over allegations that local councils are operating in secrecy.

"We couldn't agree more. They have on many occasions taken the law into their own hands and acted in a very high-handed manner...," Uthayakumar ( left ) claimed in a statement.

He also alleged that "local councils are acting like licensed gangsters".

Kayveas, also deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department, had said last week that councillors at the local government level were functioning as a 'rubber stamp' to approve projects behind closed doors without consultation from representatives of citizens groups.

Under pressure to apologise, he then clarified that he had intended to highlight the fact that local councils "were societies run in secrecy" and that he had not meant them as "secret societies".

Uthayakumar cited a report in The Star on July 15, on the demolition of a Hindu temple in Puchong which had left even the Housing and Local Government Ministry parliamentary secretary Dr S Subramaniam a "toothless tiger and powerless".

"The local authorities have total disregard and disrespect for the Federal Constitution and the law, especially when it comes to tearing down Hindu temples built on state land and meant especially for the poor Hindus," he claimed.

"The only solution to these gross abuses by the local authorities is the reintroduction of local council elections for a more transparent, accountable, good governance and democratic Malaysia."

According to Uthayakumar, there are many other reported high-handed and unlawful incidences involving the local councils, such as the demolishment of squatter settlements.