It is restless to see more people draw attention to the recent PAS Islamic state issue. In my opinion, the issue is rather the political struggle between Umno and PAS. The latest Harakah cartoon has just shown a new level of immature politicking practised by PAS.

For the people, it is more important for the governing system to look after local progress instead of going crazy politicking. Despite Kayveas' assertions that local council elections cannot solve problems, perhaps the only way to stop the over-politicking of Malaysia is through local council elections.

If is obvious why both Umno and PAS are afraid to support local council elections - afraid of losing bureaucratic grip at the state level, as well as its say on resource distribution within the local district.

In fact, as one previous malaysiakini letter pointed out, the local council administrative implement their own rules which bypass the state; the state administration are always the last to know (through complaint from papers) when draconian policies are implemented by the local councils.

From their history, we learn that the federal government had little influence over district administration. It is also impossible for the state governments to monitor local councils without facing redundancy in resources.

Worst still, policy struggles find its way to the local councils, due to the appointment system. With local council elections which acted as a monitoring system long abolished, councils no longer respond to the people.

In ecology, the closest comparison is the bacteria e-coli found in the human digestive system - harmless when it is in balance; but if the bacteria grows out of control, the human will fall sick with vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration and fever. We see these same symptoms in most councils:

  • vomiting and diarrhea - the rubbish problem
  • dehydration - water pollution and the shutdown of water treament plants

  • fever - open burnings

    • It is time for the ruling political parties to look seriously into the possibility of reinstating the monitoring system. It is the only way to cool down unhealthy politicking from turning the country inside out. Be realistic, Muslim and non-Muslim are more interested in curing the illness in our local councils than political-correctness over the Islamic state.