Mr Minister, restoring third vote is a priority!

 

Let’s put this clearly to Local Government Development Minister Nga Kor Ming and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim: We must restore local government elections.

Electing council members and mayors for our local councils is the democratic right of any country that claims to practise democracy.

For the people’s understanding, the issues regarding fixing potholes on the roads, building proper drainage and sanitation, maintaining state-run animal shelters and other tasks, fall under the local government’s purview. These are not the tasks of the state assemblypersons or MPs.

Granted, assemblypersons and MPs can raise such matters to the relevant authorities but in reality, the responsibility falls under the local councillors and mayors.

Unfortunately, we still have areas where rubbish remains uncollected and too many potholes on trunk roads because we have lacklustre leaders serving in some of our local councils.

Why do you think sometimes your complaints fall on deaf ears? It’s because, currently, all our council members and mayors are appointed by the state government.

And since they appoint these local leaders, guess who gets to sit as mayors and council members? It’s either someone from the political party administering the state or someone close to someone running the state administration.

As they are appointed members who are not accountable to voters, many of them act like little Napoleons and run the local council like their own “personal kingdom”.

In an interview, Nga said the important thing for the government now was to revive the economy and ensure roads are level, drains are unblocked and so on.

Third vote boosts the local economy

And that is a nonsensical statement coming from a veteran politician like Nga.

For starters, reviving local government elections can help revive the economy faster. How? First up, elected leaders will be beholden to voters.

As such, they will not be foolish enough to come up with by-laws that will stifle or even “penalise” genuine small and medium enterprises - the backbone of our economy.

My dear minister, just talk to small traders in the Klang Valley area and you will come to understand how certain council officials are making their lives miserable.

And I’m sure traders and businesspersons outside of the Klang Valley have their own horror stories to share.

In addition, restoring the third vote is also about decentralising power.

Speaking in terms of basic management, wouldn’t delegating tasks, such as managing an area to elected council members, ease the burden of assemblypersons and MPs?

I’m also aware that PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and his ilk are against restoring the third vote, arguing that Malays would lose their voice in urban areas where non-Malays mostly reside.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang

First up, several experts have already debunked that argument citing the demographic in urban areas has now changed since the 1960s - when the local government polls were suspended. Now, there is a healthy mix of all races in all urban areas.

Secondly, having elected council members - as mentioned earlier - would have them beholden to their voters who comprise people of all races. Hence, it would be "career suicide" if the leader chooses to antagonise any of his voters based on race or religion.

Lastly, Hadi and his ilk would be against anything DAP or Pakatan Harapan does, even if it’s good for the country and its people. Plus, their stint in the previous administration has shown how incapable they are of running the nation's day-to-day affairs.

Wanted - visionary leaders

Hence, I implore Anwar and Nga to become visionary leaders. I agree it would create some political problems in the short term, but once local government polls are restored, we will see remarkable changes in the ways cities and towns are managed in the long run.

In fact, I also strongly believe that the public transport system should be managed by the people’s respective local governments as they would know what is needed for their areas. We cannot expect someone from Putrajaya to understand the transportation needs of residents from Kuala Kangsar in Perak and vice versa.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim

By the way, speaking of history, the government suspended the local government election in 1964 due to the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation of 1964, and it was suspended indefinitely, under law, in 1976 through the Local Government Act.

Of course, that is the official version of history told in Malaysia and, like many other “official narratives” in the country, there are other versions of the “truth”.

If one reads Malaya or Malaysia’s history prior to the May 13 racial riots of 1969, many of our councillors and mayors back then were left-leaning in their ideologies.

Back then, the federal administration was pro-West (read pro-capital) while the local councils were run by left-leaning leaders who, on many occasions, had rejected proposals from the former that they deemed would affect the people. This was especially true when it came to urban areas, where voters there had anti-establishment tendencies.

To cut a long story short, the suspension of local government elections had effectively clipped the wings of leftist politicians.

But this is 2023 and times have changed. Malaysians deserve to have their third vote rights restored as this undemocratic process has been allowed to go on for too long.

Over to you, Putrajaya! - Mkini

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G VINOD is a member of the Malaysiakini team.