LETTER | S’gor councillor appointments issue shows need for third vote

LETTER | According to a recent report by Malaysiakini, there has been a delay in the appointment of local councillors in Selangor due to failed negotiations between Pakatan Harapan and Umno over how many positions each is entitled to.

Keep in mind that the state government was elected on Aug 12 - five months ago - and this is apparently not enough time to come to an agreement.

This fiasco shows how the present system of selecting leaders of local governments is utterly dysfunctional.

Local councillors are selected not based on how competent they are or how well they serve the ordinary people, but rather through backroom negotiations between political party leaders.

The people who are chosen are therefore put in place due to their connections, not due to their ability. Hence, we need a return to local council polls so that ordinary people, not party bosses, get to choose who leads local governments.

Local councils have a large impact on the lives of Malaysians. In many ways, the local councillor has more impact on your life than your MP or state assemblyperson.

I live around Dengkil, and residents here have been complaining for years about problems with flooding, pollution, malfunctioning street lights, poorly maintained parks, clogged drains and so on.

The fact that these problems have been unresolved for so long shows that we need strong leadership in our local councils.

Can we really expect this strong leadership when councillor appointments are delayed due to party bosses’ personal ambitions? Can we expect this strong leadership when councillors are chosen based on how friendly they are with political party leaders?

It is tragic that racial sentiments have been brought up to oppose the return of local government election.

Certain politicians say that appointed councillors are necessary to prevent non-Malays from dominating local governments. This fear is unreasonable and there are easy ways to ensure a balanced racial composition of elected councillors if this is indeed a problem.

One idea is to have a small percentage of councillors be appointed – so if the elected councillors are predominantly of one race, the appointed councillors can be chosen to ensure a racially balanced leadership of local councils.

Another idea is to use the “Group Representation Constituency” system - where an area elects two or more councillors at once, but the councillors elected cannot be of the same race.

Present system not working

For example, perhaps candidates would run for elections in pairs, and each pair consists of a Malay and a non-Malay candidate. Rather than voting for a single candidate, voters would then choose their favourite pair of candidates.

In any case, this delay in the selection of Selangor’s local councillors clearly shows that the present system is not working.

We need a local government that is responsive to the needs of the ordinary people. Take the power to choose local councillors away from the political party bosses, and return it to the rakyat.

Darren Ong Chung Lee is the chairperson of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (Dengkil branch).

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.