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Contributed by Goh Chuan
Chean and Lau Yi Lin
 MALACCA: A conference on the Roadmap to Local Government Elections was jointly
organized by the Malacca Bar Committee in cooperation with the Civil Society
Initiative for Parliamentary Reform (CSI-Parliament) and the Centre for Policy
Initiatives (CPI) on July 26th, 2008 at King’s Hotel. The aim of this conference
was to serve as a platform to propel practical but exciting development options
to hold elections in local government and to encourage further collaboration
between the federal administration and local authorities in regards to civil
society advocacy. The outcome of this conference will form the basis for wider
public consultation and it is the fervent wish of the organisers that it would
ignite institutional reform towards a democratic system of locally elected
representatives.
About 60 participants had attended the conference.
In the opening speech, the Chairman of the Malacca Bar
Committee, Mr. Ng Kong Peng commented that the implementation of local
government elections was a virtual and complete exercise of democratic right by
the people. Mr. Ng also recorded his appreciation for the hardwork and effort
given by the Chairman of the Malacca Bar’s Human Rights and Contemporary Issues
Sub-Committee, Mr. Anthony Chua and his sub-committee members, CSI-Parliament as
well as CPI in organising this conference. Chief Executive Officer of CPI, Dr.
Lim Teck Ghee told the audience that the authority had systematically tried to
expunge local government elections from people’s memory. Before the general
election results in March, 2008 were announced, restoration of local government
elections was generally regarded as unthinkable. However, after the political
tsunami of March, 2008, there is hope of having the elections again. Wong Chin
Huat, a founding member of CSI-Parliament opined that the principle of “no
taxation without representation” should be upheld. As such, all taxing authority
should be elected. He urged the five states governed by Pakatan Rakyat to set
out a timetable for local government elections to be carried out in respective
states soonest possible.
Session 1 of the conference was entitled “Why Local
Democracy”. Moderator of this session was Mr. Ng Kong Peng. The first
speaker was Mr. Derek Fernandez, a town planning lawyer and a member of the
Petaling Jaya City Council. Mr. Derek gave a presentation on the topic of “An
Assessment of the Status Quo Under the Current Laws.” He commented that the
will of Pakatan Rakyat state governments in having local government elections
was eroding. This should not have happened as the most crucial factor of Pakatan
Rakyat’s win in urban areas in the last election was due to its’ component
parties’ promise of restoring local government elections. He further elaborated
that the need to restore local government elections arises from the many issues
concerning poor management and abuse of power in local authorities as
highlighted by our local newspapers. People were angry by political
interferences in the decision-making of the local councils and they want changes
to be made. He also went through the statutory provisions governing local
government with the participants, amongst others, section 9 of the Local
Government Act 1976 (power of state authority to issue directions) and section
10(2) of the Local Government Act 1976 (criteria for councillors of the local
authority to be appointed). The appointment of local councillors under the
present scheme or system is a political appointment and certainly there is no
transparency. Mr. Derek was of the view that section 1 (4) of the Local
Government Act 1976, Article 95B(1)(a) and Article 113(4) of the Federal
Constitution actually provided a way out for the state governments to abolish
the present appointment scheme and call for the elections for local government.
He also opined that certain emergency legislations which suspended the local
government elections may be invalid. Article 150(5) of the Federal Constitution
was also interpreted by Mr. Derek as requiring emergency laws to contain the
express provision on emergency matters and if there is none then such emergency
legislations should be invalid.
The next speaker was Mr. Edward Lee, the state assemblyman
for Bukit Gasing, Selangor and the President of Resident Association Section 5
Petaling Jaya who spoke on the topic of “The Role of Civil Society in Local
Governance.” Mr. Lee shared about his personal experience of taking part in
the community activities and assured the participants that he would use his
official position to contribute to the restoration of local government
elections. He also encouraged the participants to take more active role in local
governance by taking step such as attending the local council meetings.
The last speaker for this session was Mr. Victor Oorjitham, a
former local councillor serving from 1970 to 1975 in the Petaling Jaya Council.
Mr. Victor shared with the participants about the historical background of the
local councils. He outlined the differences between the local councillors in the
1970s and their successors since 1980s. In 1970s, when the local councillors
were appointed, section 10 of the Local Government Act 1976 was followed
strictly. He also gave examples of the types of persons who were appointed in
the 70's. The Petaling Jaya Council included a Banker, the Legal advisor of the
Employees Provident Fund, a senior police officer, a senior civil servant from
the Treasury, a senior civil servant from the Ministry of Information, the
Editor of a leading newspaper, a medical practitioner, himself (Legal Advisor to
A.I.A ) and others who came within the guidelines. But, all these people, in
addition to the professional expertise they brought to the post, were involved
in community affairs. However, in 1980s, the local councillors began to change
to be political appointees from component parties of the ruling coalition.
Before 1980s, the local councillors were loyal to the public but after that, the
local councillors were only loyal to their political masters. Since then,
corruption had tarnished the service given by the local authorities whereby
by-laws and guidelines were not followed strictly. This had then affected
people’s lives and interests.
After a tea break, the conference resumed with Session 2 -“Reviving
Local Elections:The State Solutions”. The moderator for the session was Dr.
Lim Teck Ghee.
The first speaker for the session was Mr. Andrew Khoo, the
Co-Deputy Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of the Malaysian Bar. Mr.
Khoo went through the statutory provisions passed for the purpose of suspending
local government elections and the available statutory provisions for the state
authorities to pave way for the local elections to be carried out. He concluded
that state authorities may apply the “opt-out” notifications provided by the
provisions in their attempt to conduct the local government elections.
The audience then had Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Chin Fook Weng, a national speaker for
Gerakan, to present Gerakan’s position with regards to the issue. Tan Sri Chin
pointed out that Gerakan had actually included local government elections as one
of its promises in their manifesto in 1969. However, after going through the
state of emergency laws and having formed a coalition with their political
partners in Barisan Nasional, it cannot be carried out as there were other
issues to be considered. He was of the view that although there has been no
local government elections since the suspension of the elections, people have
been giving mandate to the elected state assemblymen forming the state
authorities to appoint their councillors. As such, this is an indirect elections
for local councils. He also stated that our society is fragile and the direct
election for local government can only be restored when people become more
mature. The Gerakan’s view presented by Tan Sri Chin triggered comments from the
participants as they have doubts on the “immaturity” of Malaysian society after
50 years of independence and question on the cause of such “immaturity”.
The next speaker for the session was Mr. Ronnie Liu, the
Selangor Government Exco member for Local Government, Study and Research
Committee. Mr. Liu began his presentation by making a stand that it was the
intention of the Pakatan Rakyat government in Selangor to restore local
government elections as there were advantages of doing so. However he mentioned
that in view of the fact that the federal government does not propose to amend
the laws to restore the local government elections, it may not be practical for
the state government alone to conduct the elections at the moment. He was
prepared to meet the federal minister who is in charge of the local government
and the Prime Minister in order to persuade them to convince the cabinet so that
such amendment may be tabled and passed in Parliament. During the Q & A time,
Mr. Wong Chin Huat tried to get a confirmation from Mr. Liu on the preparation
and timetable for the local government elections to be implemented by the
Selangor government. However, Mr. Liu insisted that a thorough study needed to
be carried out on the matter first. According to Mr. Liu, a special committee
would be set up by the Selangor government in 6-month’s time, as proposed by the
Menteri Besar of Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. Nevertheless, the actual time
needed for the process could not be confirmed now as the state government had
other priorities to consider.
After session 2 ended, the participants took a break for lunch.
The third session discussed ways to revive local elections
via federal solutions. Professor Abdul Aziz Bari addressed the fact that in the
Federal Constitution, the conduct of elections is regulated by the Elections
Commission. As long as it is under the prerogative of the federal government,
the political will to conduct local council elections shall come from the
federal government.
Mr. Sivarasa Rasiah, MP for Subang and Vice President of
Parti Keadilan Rakyat spoke next on the parliamentary mechanisms to initiate
local government elections via the private members’ bill and select committees.
He believes that one should not separate the state and federal process. Clause 4
of Art.113 of the Federal Constitution provides that Federal or State law may
authorise the Election Commission to conduct election. Thus the State Assembly
could pass local elections law themselves by drafting the law and promulgating
it to the public. Mr. Rasiah further mentioned on the difficulties to have the
private members’ bills tabled in the Parliament. The Standing Order 15 provides
for conduct of meetings in the Parliament and, as always the case would be, the
governmental matters would always take precedence over private concerns. To have
the private members’ bills discussed or passed at Parliament is an uphill task.
Thus, according to him, there is an urgent need for Parliamentary reform. The
problem of lack of supporting staff for individual members of parliament needs
to be addressed . He compared our Parliament to that of Indonesia where an MP
there would be designated five staffers; and in the Philippines, seven staffers
would be designated to a single MP. In Malaysia, an MP does his duties without
such assistance.
Dr Goh Ban Lee, a retired USM Associate Professor spoke on
the National Council of Local Governments (NCLG). On November 28th, 1971, after
NCLG deliberated on the Athi Nahappan Report in its meeting, it was held that
the suspension of local government elections should continue to be in force. At
another meeting held on September 30th, 1972, it was decided that local councils
were incapable of running their own affairs satisfactorily. In the
pre-independence period, Penang’s local councillors were fully elected. However,
because of lack of understanding on the meaning of being councillors, in new
Chinese villages, the elected councillors behaved without constraint and were
above the law. Dr Goh thus holds the view that elections do not necessarily
bring about a good government. Dr Goh said that it was possible to appoint an
Independent Committee to select local councillors.
At the end of the conference, a joint press statement was
issued and resolutions were adopted. They are as follows:-
Joint Press Statement issued by
Mr. Ng Peng Kong, Melaka Bar Committee Chairman
Dr. Lim Teck Ghee, Director, Centre for Policy Initiatives
Mr. Wong Chin Huat, Civil Society Parliamentary Initiative for Parliamentary
Reform
This press statement is issued as the outcome of the “Roadmap to Local
Government Elections” Conference jointly organised by the Malacca Bar
Committee, Centre for Policy Initiatives and Civil Society Initiative for
Parliamentary Reform (CSI-Parliament) on July 26th, 2008 in Malacca.
Participants at the one day conference adopted the following
resolutions:
1. the restoration of local elections constitutes an
important step forward in reviving democracy, improving the standard of
governance and checking the scourge of corruption, excesses and mismanagement
presently plaguing the urban population in Malaysia;
2. the restoration of local elections lies clearly within the
jurisdiction of the state government, as provided for by the Article 113(4) and
Item 4, List II, Schedule 9 in the Federal Constitution. State governments,
especially the Pakatan Rakyat ones which have made election promises on reviving
local elections, should take immediate steps to formulate state laws to such
effect;
3. the Federal Government should, at the same time, initiate
consultations with the general public and hold negotiations with the state
governments to formulate a comprehensive plan to have local elections that are
clean, free, fair and representative.
Speakers at the conference included the following:
Professor Abdul Aziz BARI is lecturing at the Department of
Public Law at the International Islamic University.
Tan Sri Dato’ Dr CHIN Fook Weng is a national speaker for
Gerakan and a former senator and Associate Professor.
Mr Derek FERNANDES is a town planning lawyer and a member of
the Petaling Jaya City Council.
Dr GOH Ban Lee is a retired USM Associate Professor
interested in urban governance, housing and urban planning.
Mr Andrew KHOO is the Co-Deputy Chairperson of the Human
Rights Committee, with interests running from parliamentary reform, electoral
reform to Free Trade Agreements.
Mr Edward LEE is the state assemblyperson for Bukit Gasing
and the President of Resident Association Section 5 Petaling Jaya.
Mr Ronnie LIU is the state assemblyman for Pandamaran,
Selangor and the Selangor Government Exco member for Local Government, Study and
Research Committee.
Mr Victor OORJITHAM is the Chairman of Maxwell Towers
Resident Association (local joint action committee) and former local councilor
for Petaling Jaya.
Mr Sivarasa RASIAH is the member of Parliament for Subang and
the Vice President of Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
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