Local Councils

I remember during the run up to the recent General Elections, the opposition parties, especially PKR and DAP were religiously calling and demanding for local council elections, including the election for village heads. They said that all councilor positions and village heads should be elected by the people as these people work and serve the people. Transparency, accountability, integrity and responsibility were amongst the key phrases used by the Pakatan Rakyat to drill into the rakyat that local councilors and village heads should be elected, not appointed. They also said that politicians or supporters of one party should not be a criteria for the appointment of a local councilor / village head. One must be professional, objective and transparent.

In fact, I remember them saying that should they be elected into Government, they will ensure that the local council elections will be one of their priorities. I have to admit, some of the Pakatan Rakyat MPs in Wilayah tried to do that via some NGOs by calling for the Government to hold elections when it came to appointing the Mayor of KL.

So what happened now?

In Perak, State Government had announced that they will appoint all councilors again until “they get the system right”. Care to elaborate and be more transparent?

Then, we have some PKR assemblymen who decided on their own not to listen to the State Government and went ahead with the election process to appoint a village head. Of course, the election process was coordinated and managed by the local PKR machinery in that area and no prizes for guessing who won – the local PKR head! Hmm…..Integrity? Transparency? And I wonder what business or professional qualification the chap has?

In fact, Dr Lee Boon Chye, PKR’s Vice-President and Gopeng MP, said that by convention, PKR should be allowed to decide on the village head, as the assemblyman of the area was from the party. (N20 STAR, 2 January 2009). Again, this statement totally contradicted the party’s earlier stand of professionalism, transparency, objectivity and so on.

Next we have YB Kulasegaran who was allegedly extremely upset because he did not get the Deputy Mayor of Ipoh’s post. He considered being a ‘lowly’ Councilor was not enough. You can bargain and negotiate for the post? I thought the Pakatan Rakyat Government was going to hold elections for it. And make sure the posts are filled by those most professional and most qualified? Not saying YB Kula is not qualified, but where is the election? And I read in the papers, YB Kula was allegedly upset about not getting the post because YB Nga Kor Ming wanted to appoint his close buddy to that post. I read in the NST today(05 January 2009), that this close buddy is actually YB Nga's ex boss where he worked before contesting in the elections…..gratitude to his ex boss? I thought these kind of behaviour is non-existent and not tolerated in Pakatan Rakyat?

In Penang, I am told that the State Government is thinking about appointing a politician as the President of local councils. At present moment, this particular post in all local councils is filled by a civil servant. A case to point out is Majlis Perbandaran Seberang Prai (MPSP) where the State Government is mulling over that particular idea of appointing a politician as the President for the local council. (N14,STAR, 31 December 2008).

What are you guys doing DAP? PKR? Pakatan Rakyat? Don’t lie to the Rakyat!!!!! Don’t cheat us!!!!!!