Umno will never allow local council elections - Lokman tells DAP

 

A DAP leader’s call for local council elections to be held in Kuala Lumpur has ruffled feathers in Umno.

Umno supreme council member Lokman Adam said his party would never allow this to happen.

Interestingly, he also dubbed the suggestion by Federal Territories DAP chief Tan Kok Wai as an internal movement by the “Lim Dynasty” to sabotage DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke’s leadership.

“After Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng’s comments on the non-Malay prime minister issue, now it’s Tan’s turn to repeat the Lim Dynasty’s old desire for local council elections.

“We want to tell Kit Siang, we will never allow local council elections to be held, we will fight it to the end!

“Stop being a tool of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and sabotaging your own party,” Lokman said in a Facebook post last night.

Tan (above) made the suggestion to restore local council elections yesterday, starting with Kuala Lumpur, in an effort to give locals a democratic say in how the capital city is run.

At present, Kuala Lumpur only has MPs, and Kuala Lumpur City Hall is run by the federal government.

Critics, including those from Umno, had in the past warned that local council elections would lead to racial instability as Malays would reportedly lose power in such polls.

Such criticisms were revived after Tan’s call yesterday as espoused by Umno Veterans’ Association chief Mustapha Yaakub.

“Umno veterans understand DAP’s desire to turn Kuala Lumpur into a local government that is represented by members who represent the Chinese, especially DAP.

“For sure, if such elections are held, Chinese representatives will easily win in areas where they are the majority,” he said in a statement yesterday

He added that a local council election in Kuala Lumpur would lead to calls for it to also be held in major cities such as Penang Island, Ipoh, and Johor Bahru.

‘Nightmare for Malays’

Meanwhile, Perikatan Nasional lawmaker Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal also spoke out on the matter.

“Bit by bit, Kit Siang’s Malaysian Dream is set to be fulfilled under the UMDAP movement,” he said on X.

UMDAP is a portmanteau of Umno and DAP.

Wan Fayhsal (above) has portrayed the so-called Kit Siang Malaysian Dream as a nightmare for Malays.

The last time Malaysia held a local council election was in 1963. The next round, which was supposed to be held the following year, was suspended.

The suspension, which was supposed to be temporary, became permanent in 1976 when Parliament passed the Local Government Act resulting in the abolishment of the local government election altogether and only provided for the appointment of local councillors.