Local council elections- politics of empowerment

1. During the last general election (GE 12) campaign period, Pakatan Rakyat loudly champions the promise to have a local government election. After more than 40 years absence, I bet not many people knows what Local Government (LG) election is it all about and many do no have clues on how it is done. The people have been accustomed to process of having elected local government by government to accommodate various ethnic based political parties.
   

    

2. Najib is in a disagreement over the need to have such election. He says it is counter productive and will not improve public service. How is it that a person who is represented at the lowest level of government and elected by the local people can be said to be counter productive to the public service? Being the closest form of the government to the people, surely the people that is elected is expected to make things better for themselves as they lives in the community where they are elected.
   

    

3. Only a blind hearted man cannot see that the motive of not wanting to have a LG election is because of business and politics. I say business because potentially millions of dollars of small contracts may not go to party members and secondly the political influence on the ruling government may be adverse. In fact it is expected that the local government will be more of a federal and state politicians. If the Federal government can make life difficult for the State Government in view of their political ideology, what would they do if elected LG office bearers are not politically inclined.
   

    

4. The need of having local government election is about transparency, returning the power back to the people as well making the local authority more efficient. The local council will hire and fire the office bearers in the LG based on productivity. Something that the state or federal government cannot do. Only people that can make a difference will be elected and stay elected. In most likely scenario they will be politically neutral.
   

    

5. Raja Petra in his writing under the heading “Najib blinked first” also points out the political impact of having the local government election. Unfortunately what he failed to highlight is that both the Selangor and Penang government were merely making political moves. They are not sincere about the need to have a LG election. I think what they are doing is simply passing the buck to the Federal Government. They wants to send a message to the people that they wants to do it but the Federal Government did not want it and there fore it cannot be done. They are trying to run away from what they promise the people.
   

    

   
   

    

6. It is a known fact that legally a LG election cannot be done because it goes against the ACT 171 (Local Government Act 1976 Part 2 Item 10) which says that the local council members are to be appointed by the State Government. Item 10 say’s that “Councillors of the local authority shall be appointed from amongst persons the majority of whom shall be persons ordinarily resident in the local authority area who in the opinion of the State Authority have wide experience in local government affairs or who have achieved distinction in any profession, commerce or industry, or are otherwise capable of representing the interests of their communities in the local authority area”. The law is so simple and ordinary people can appreciate it. It is not written in Latin.
   

    

7. Clearly when Guan Eng sent the instruction to the Election Commission to conduct the LG election; it was done with a political intention in bad faith. In legal terms, I think the lawyers call it “mala fide”. The Penang and Selangor government simply do not want to do what they promised to the people by getting the Federal Government to say that it cannot be done. They know that the EC will reply and say that it cannot be done because of the provisions of ACT 171. In that sense, they have succeeded to prove a point and must be congratulated. Is that what the people want or what the people has been promised? The truth is while the LG election cannot be done, it does not mean that the State cannot let the people chose who should sit on the council. They can actually appoint people who are elected by the residents if they wanted to.
   

    

   
   

    

8. As an Illustration let me use Bukit Antarabangsa as an example. In BA there are about 10 residents associations (RA). If the State Government wanted to, it can ask the various RA to nominate 2 people to be chosen as a councillor. It means that out of 10 residents association there would be 20 candidates. Assuming that BA is given 2 seats for the local council, then this 20 people must have a small election to elect 2 best individuals whose name is to be forwarded to the State Government to be appointed. In this small manner of limited election, the people on ground have elected their representatives.
   

    

9. The State must appoint the candidate that has been nominated. It must not exercise its power of refusal to appoint (unless the nominees is a criminal or has broken any laws) The point that I am trying to make is that the State Government can still exercise its intention within the limitation of Act 171 if it wants to do so. Clearly it has not done so because they don’t want to do it. They just want to find the necessary excuses to give the people on why they “cannot” have an election and use the issue a political punching bag.
   

    

10. While the Penang and Selangor State Government has chosen to challenge the Federal Government via the Election Commission, I too would like to challenge the two state governments to try out my proposal instead of saying that it cannot be done. I have demonstrated here that “the peoples choice can be elected by the state in accordance of Act 171” if they want to. I would like to appeal to the State Government to stop playing politics and find ways to get things done rather than finding reasons why it cannot be done. The State must be creative in interpreting the laws. When there is a will, there is a way! and definitely “Malaysia Boleh”