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Sunday, January 25, 2015

Malaysians no longer vote along racial lines, says PKR

PKR central leadership council member Latheefa Koya says Malaysians no longer perceive each other through the lens of race and religion. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 25, 2015.PKR central leadership council member Latheefa Koya says Malaysians no longer perceive each other through the lens of race and religion. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 25, 2015.
Claims that local council elections will lead to racial disunity are complete nonsense and untrue, as Malaysians no longer vote on the basis of race and religion, a PKR leader said today.
PKR central leadership council member Latheefa Koya said that those who insisted otherwise, including Umno minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, clearly had a hidden agenda.
She pointed out that the results of the past two general elections showed that Malays voted in large numbers for Chinese opposition candidates, while non-Malays voted overwhelmingly for Malay candidates, including those from PAS.
“It is selfish and narrow politicians who perpetuate and encourage the myth that Malaysian voters continue to vote on racial lines. This is an insult to the integrity and intelligence of the Malaysian voters.”
She cautioned politicians who spread such views that Malaysian voters would not forget such an unflattering perception of them.
“Selfish and narrow-minded politicians like Abd Rahman Dahlan should be careful in implying that Malaysian voters are bigoted and nurse racial prejudice.
“Voters will remember this crude and untrue description of them.”
Yesterday, Rahman, who is the minister of urban wellbeing, housing and local government, said local council elections would lead to racial discord as Malaysians still largely voted based on their racial background.
Rahman added that local council elections would lead to higher local taxes as the elected officials would have more autonomy and would exercise their power.
He also said there were advantages to having local government councillors be appointed by the state government, rather than elected directly by the people.
One was the state government’s ability to replace ineffective officers immediately, and another was the “seamless administration” of both the state and local government.
Rahman was commenting on the ongoing spat between Hadi and DAP over the latter’s insistence on restoring local council polls.
Hadi on Friday had raised the spectre of the May 13 riots in defending the Islamist party’s position against local council elections.
He said such polls could cause a deeper racial divide as well as tension, especially in Chinese-majority areas, besides being advantageous to urban residents only, whom he said were mainly non-Malays.
“Local elections are an integral part of any proper democracy and Umno must not be allowed to sabotage the democratisation of our nation by raising the racial bogey again,” said Latheefa today.
She urged the party to stop its “hypocritical pretence” of being the champions of the Malays, claiming that widespread poverty among Malays was caused by Umno’s policies.
DAP has been pushing for local council elections to be restored as a way to strengthen democracy, but PAS has long resisted it. Only DAP and PKR listed local council elections in their election manifestos for the 2008 general election.
During the 2013 general election, DAP and the Pakatan Rakyat coalition as a whole performed well in urban areas, winning 87% of urban seats compared with the Barisan Nasional's 13%.
Local government elections used to be held until they were abolished under the Local Government Act 1976. Since then, positions in the local council have been appointed by political parties ruling the state.
The DAP-led government of Penang has tried, unsuccessfully, to restore the third vote by taking the matter to court.
But the Federal Court in August last year ruled that the state government had no jurisdiction to conduct local council polls.
- TMI

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