‘Pakatan doing more than BN at local govt level’

According to a coalition of NGOs, the Pakatan state governments empowered local communities more than what BN did.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Coalition of NGOs and Professional Appointed Councillors (Conpac) today defended the Pakatan Rakyat-led state governments from recent news reports which had claimed that they have not fulfilled their promises.

Conpac argued that the Pakatan-led states were home to more empowered and involved communities, and that Pakatan Rakyat was “more inclusive than its predecessor”, allowing for a wider democratic space.

“We would like to also state that Conpac continues to applaud the Pakatan state governments for their achievements in this short term of a little more than three years in governance,” said Conpac chairman Tan Jo Hann.

Tan said some examples of Pakatan’s achievements included the revival of the local village council (JKKK) elections and the up-coming MBPJ local council elections.

“These achievements are great leaps in comparison to the 54 years track record of the BN government who has never even considered inviting members of civil society organizations to participate in governance and instead always sidelined and labeled NGOs as troublemakers,” said Tan in a statement released today.

Conpac called on the BN-led federal government to follow Pakatan’s example by reviving local council elections. These elections were removed by BN in 1964.

The NGO also took a potshot at Selangor MCA deputy chief Teh Kim Poo who had called for Selangor exco member in charge of local government Ronnie Liu to resign.

They should first assess BN’s own track record before pointing an accusing finger at another, said Tan.

Conpac reiterated that it was determined to stand by the PKR-led Selangor government and continue to engage in dialogues to address the issues pertaining to appointments of local councillors and local council elections.

The NGO also said that it has asked for a 25% allocation of local council seats to non-politcal persons who have sufficient experience in civil society work.

The Selangor state government recently came under fire for appointing political persons from Pakatan parties under the NGO quota as local councillors.