23 November 2012
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THE Batu Caves condominium project has raised some interesting talking points. The most obvious of these, the one taken up by the many comments I have read on the internet, is the sheer bald faced cheek of the BN government.
For the Prime Minister to promise the ending of an
unpopular project if his party is elected into power beggars belief when it is
the local authority which was appointed by his very own party which gave the
approval in the first place.
Then for the MCA to chip in by saying that the
Pakatan state government was at fault for not stopping the project themselves is
akin to a thief saying the theft is the fault of the victim because he did
nothing to stop it happening.
But then, this level of ridiculousness is to be
expected. Let’s look at something a bit more constructive than the
shamelessness of some politicos.
For me, this whole fiasco serves as greater proof
that there has to be a complete overhaul of our local governments.
Firstly we need to bring back local government
elections. The current system of appointment of councillors by the state
government is simply not democratic.
There is also the danger of councillors being
beholden to the ones who appointed them.
Instead they really should be beholden to the people
who live in the area.
Furthermore, although I know there are many local
authorities and councillors who work very hard and make themselves accessible to
their “constituents”, what is truly needed is the institutionalising of a system
where they are structurally answerable to the people.
There are far too many cases of local authorities
acting in a high handed manner simply because they know that ultimately there is
very little that the ordinary folk can do. The argument that you indirectly
select your local government by the state government you vote for does not hold
water.
This is because the job of the state government is
very different from the job of the local government. There are broader political
and policy issues that come into play when choosing your state representative. A
local representative need not even be affiliated with any party.
What people want are councillors who are dedicated
and work hard on local issues. State-wide, let alone national issues, does not
come into the equation of tree trimming, drain clearing and garbage
collection.
But even the reintroduction of local government
elections is not enough. There has to be a total review of the Local Government
Act with all undemocratic and un-transparent provisions removed.
As it is local governments can work in secrecy and
this is because the Act allows them to.
The Selangor State’s introduction of the Freedom of
information Bill is a good thing but by itself it is not enough.
The entire local government machinery has to be
opened up as much as possible so that there can be close scrutiny by the
public.
At all levels of government in Malaysia, Federal,
state and local, what is clear is that the future depends on the opening of
democratic spaces and the democratisation of government machinery.
Too many cases of corruption and incompetence have
been coming up. People are people, they are fallible, they are greedy and they
are weak.
What we need is a system where they can’t succumb to
temptation without being discovered and without being punished for their
transgressions.
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