Councils should look at matters closest to the folk
Dr Mohamed Rafick Khan Abdul RahmanPublished: Jan 25, 2015 1:42 AM | Updated: Jan 25, 2015 2:02 AM
I would like to share my views on matters related to the publication in The Star under the heading ‘Rahman Dahlan agrees with Hadi local elections may lead to May 13'. Both BN and Pakatan have no intention of having local council elections. BN has been consistent for the refusal to allow such election and Pakatan Rakyat has renegaded on its published and written promises to the people. The reasons given by both coalition leaders are weak.
The core functions of a local council are to look at matters that are closest to the people. Both the state and federal government are too far from the people for them to have good understanding of the needs of the people at the micro level.
Today the local authority has become a government agency and the councillors have been a rubber stamp of the decisions made by the local authority. The person that was appointed to the post lacks quality and knowledge in functions and power of a councillor.
Appointed councilors are political party nominees. The council seats are shared according to an agreed ratio among the component parties. They are not independent. Appointments are given as part of political rewards to ground level leaders.
At times decisions made by the council are not in the best interest of the people as the councillors as party interest comes first. There are clear professional conflicts of interest between political parties nominees and between meeting the needs of the people.
In my area the councillors do not understand their role as local council. They have been turned into ‘complaint centres’ for people to bring their issues to the Ampang Jaya Munbicipal Council (MPAJ). Instead of the local authority reporting to the council, it is the reverse.
They have been assigned certain zones and have been asked to look after drainage, rubbish collection and grass cutting. They have very poor knowledge of the Local Authority Act or the Local Council Act and the associate regulation. They failed to function as a ‘board of directors’ of the local authority and provided the much needed check and balance between addressing the needs of the people and the local authorities.
While we can accept the point of maintaining the current system but we cannot accept the fact that both BN and Pakatan failed to nominate ‘independent people with strong knowledge on the governance of local authority’ as specified under Section 10(2) in Act 171.
The law says that the state authority must appoints councillors who have wide experience in local government affairs or have achieved distinction in any profession, commerce or industry, or are otherwise capable of representing the interests of their communities in the local authority area.
Unfortunately the state government appoints party members who are grass root leaders in most cases do not meet the requirement of the law. What is stopping both parties from doing the same?
In PJ the brilliant mind was removed from office and replaced with a mediocre group of people. In Ampang, we have unemployed party members and people with poor education background as councillors. They do not meet the requirement of the Local Council Act.
Both Pakatan and BN are not prepared to put forward independent person as council members. Both are using the local council to manage their political agenda instead of the people’s agenda. Clearly one is not superior to the other. The only clear conclusion is that BN has been consistent on this issue and Pakatan has openly lied to the people when they renegade their promise in their manifesto.
The question remains which political parties in power will be the first to push forward the agenda that focuses on the people. The urbanites are likely to support them.
The core functions of a local council are to look at matters that are closest to the people. Both the state and federal government are too far from the people for them to have good understanding of the needs of the people at the micro level.
Today the local authority has become a government agency and the councillors have been a rubber stamp of the decisions made by the local authority. The person that was appointed to the post lacks quality and knowledge in functions and power of a councillor.
Appointed councilors are political party nominees. The council seats are shared according to an agreed ratio among the component parties. They are not independent. Appointments are given as part of political rewards to ground level leaders.
At times decisions made by the council are not in the best interest of the people as the councillors as party interest comes first. There are clear professional conflicts of interest between political parties nominees and between meeting the needs of the people.
In my area the councillors do not understand their role as local council. They have been turned into ‘complaint centres’ for people to bring their issues to the Ampang Jaya Munbicipal Council (MPAJ). Instead of the local authority reporting to the council, it is the reverse.
They have been assigned certain zones and have been asked to look after drainage, rubbish collection and grass cutting. They have very poor knowledge of the Local Authority Act or the Local Council Act and the associate regulation. They failed to function as a ‘board of directors’ of the local authority and provided the much needed check and balance between addressing the needs of the people and the local authorities.
While we can accept the point of maintaining the current system but we cannot accept the fact that both BN and Pakatan failed to nominate ‘independent people with strong knowledge on the governance of local authority’ as specified under Section 10(2) in Act 171.
The law says that the state authority must appoints councillors who have wide experience in local government affairs or have achieved distinction in any profession, commerce or industry, or are otherwise capable of representing the interests of their communities in the local authority area.
Unfortunately the state government appoints party members who are grass root leaders in most cases do not meet the requirement of the law. What is stopping both parties from doing the same?
In PJ the brilliant mind was removed from office and replaced with a mediocre group of people. In Ampang, we have unemployed party members and people with poor education background as councillors. They do not meet the requirement of the Local Council Act.
Both Pakatan and BN are not prepared to put forward independent person as council members. Both are using the local council to manage their political agenda instead of the people’s agenda. Clearly one is not superior to the other. The only clear conclusion is that BN has been consistent on this issue and Pakatan has openly lied to the people when they renegade their promise in their manifesto.
The question remains which political parties in power will be the first to push forward the agenda that focuses on the people. The urbanites are likely to support them.
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