The recent talk-of-the-town topic is the proposal by the PR government in Penang and Selangor to call for Local Government Council Elections. This is not surprising since the call for Local Council Elections was a DAP Election manifesto in 2008. What is surprising however, was that the call had to wait for more than 2 years after the Elections for it to resurface, that is, what should have been put up 2 years ago, is only being put up now. This raises the interesting question, why now.

I personally feel that this is yet again, another show put up by the PR government. I doubt that they are serious and I am convinced that this issue will not see the light of day, at least not in time for the next General Elections. In short, the PR government is only buying time.

I have raised earlier the timing of the call for the Local Council Elections. If the PR government is sincere, that would have been a priority issue for them immediately after the General Elections, or at least within the first year of the GE. No, they did not do that. Rather, the last 2 years have been spent, doing very little real work, but politicking, day in, day out. And they are still politicking!

Secondly, all the usual beating-around-the-bush story of writing to the Election Commission, then forming a committee to study the issue, is definitely a delaying tactic. By right, when they were putting this up as an Election manifesto, surely they would have studied the viability and legality of the issue. After all, in the PR stables, there are certainly no shortage of legal talents and brains to advise them. If this is not so, then we can only conclude that the election manifesto put up by the DAP in 2008 is simply to mislead the rakyat.

Again, notice that in their announcement regarding this issue, there is no details of any road map or how long before the issue is to be studied. This is why I have my reservations about this. As an example, even a simple registration exercise to register senior citizens in order for them to be eligible for RM100 yearly appreciation, took them a year, when a 3 months registration exercise is surely more than sufficient. Therefore, I can conclude that this studying of issue story will take at least 3 years to complete, when at that time, they will try to hoodwink the rakyat once again and raise the same issue in yet another election manifesto.

Thirdly, in my opinion, the PR government cannot be serious in wanting to have Local Elections. After all, during the last 2 years while they were waiting for an “inspiration” to announce their move, they have failed miserably to show that they mean what they say. After all, they are the Government, aren’t they? They have a free hand and the power to appoint Councillors. But what happened?

Out of the 48 in Penang, only 4 were appointed from NGOs, with the rest coming from distribution among the 3 political parties. Basically, they were adopting the same practices by the BN. So what’s new? If they had been serious, what is there to stop them from appointing at least half or two thirds from NGOs. I doubt they were able to do that, for that would have started an immediate revolt within their ranks and members. So even when they had the power to do so, yet they did not do, we can conclude that they are not serious and not sincere in wanting to have Local Elections.

Finally, I feel that the main and actual reason why they are reluctant to call for the Local Elections is that they are afraid that they might just lose control of the Local Council. After all, in the last 2 years, their lack of capability and talent have shown up like a sore thumb in the entire State Government administration. Why then would the ratepayers want to vote in another group of incapable and ignorant people to run the Council? In the last two years under the PR Government, has anything changed in the Council? Has services been better or has it gotten worse? Try to think about it. I can assure you that even if you were to think about it for another few weeks, I doubt you can come up with anything. This is simply because not only has nothing changed, it has actually become worse. I think ratepayers are ready to make changes, starting with the Local Council.

So you see, my friends, all these call for Local Council Elections is just a political gimmick to sidetrack the rakyat. On paper, it looks as if they are really interested in Local Elections. However, in reality it is not true. Don’t believe? Challenge them to do it within a year and see what is their response. I conclude by quoting the famous tagline from the popular 1990s TV series, The X-Files, “The Truth Is Somewhere Out There”. Yes, the truth is somewhere out there but the only question is where? Your guess is as good as mine. So my friends, forget about the Local Council Elections, just sit back and enjoy yet another episode of a splendid story churned out by their master story-tellers.

by Sdr Wong Mun Hoe
BN Coordinator for Pantai Jerejak State Constituency