Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad may not have been fed with the right information to claim that reinstating local council elections could be detrimental to racial relations in the country, said DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.
"I think maybe he (Mahathir), may not have the latest information. Based on 2010 statistics, the racial polarisation problem in local councils has been rectified.
"Only three are still Chinese majority - namely Sibu, Kuching and Penang. Out of 148 local council areas, 122 are Malay majority, whereas 13 are not controlled by any races," he told the "Where to, Malaysia" forum at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in Bangi tonight.
Yesterday, Mahathir said local council elections are off the table as its reinstatement could lead to racial conflict and widen the urban-rural divide.
“[...] Local council elections may produce the wrong result. The urban (areas) may be different, the rural (areas) will be different.
“There will be conflict, emphasised probably by racial differences and the like. We don’t want that to happen,” the prime minister had said.
Meanwhile, Lim said, DAP will not give up in trying to convince the government and other Pakatan Harapan component parties to accept the idea to hold local council elections.
Lim, however, admitted that reinstating local council polls was not included in Harapan manifesto, but it has been something that DAP has championed for the past 50 years. - Mkini
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