QUIZ time: name the current mayor (or datuk bandar) of Kuala Lumpur? Petaling Jaya? Subang Jaya? (Yes, Subang Jaya is now a legitimate city, if you didn’t know.)

Having trouble (if you didn’t cheat and googled)? Well, you’re not alone. With all due respect to our current mayors nationwide (I don’t intend to insult), unfortunately no one really cares about them and that’s actually not good.

I have always been fascinated with the role of a mayor because it seems like such a tangible and driven post that directly ties to a community.

Did you know that the mayor of the now-besieged capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, is a former international heavyweight boxing champion?

Back on the home front, live music is besieged again with the surge in Omicron cases and the shallow public perception of what “live music” entails, which it seems, is also the mayor’s perception.

Live music is still perceived to have links with spaces and venues and live music professionals (yes, it is a profession, not just a “passion”) – which include musicians that you see performing, those involved in the backline (instruments, staging, sound mixing), and venues that house these performances – are still struggling to make ends meet, if they haven’t closed down or taken on other forms of employment or earning. No one in power seems to care.

In good old conservative Malaysia, the words ‘pubs’ or ‘nightclubs’ naturally have negative connotations to those living in the narrow boxes of their own narrow lives.

I’m not interested in making life more exciting for this lot.

However, when it comes to spaces where live music is performed, it is not just limited to nightclubs or pubs – the term ‘live house’, which originated from Japan, for example, refers to venues or spaces that cater solely to live music and do not have a kitchen or bar (the excellent Live Fact in Kota Damansara is the only worthy local equivalent).

In Malaysia, there is a close association between the food and beverage industry, and live music – but this is not the only way of defining live music venues.

What may seem like an argument in semantics actually has some very real repercussions. Take for example the live music venue I call my second home: Merdekarya in Petaling Jaya, which opened its doors back in 2013.

Founded and run by singer-songwriter Brian Gomez and his wife Melani Delikan, it’s an outlier by Malaysian standards.

It focuses on performers performing original material every night of the week (except Sundays and Mondays when it’s closed).

It’s not a regular pub, it’s a community. I know the venue has had many challenges just to exist but one such challenge is dealing with confusing directives and actions by Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) in issuing of permits and SOPs for live music

They are confusing because, I suspect, they are meant to keep bureaucracies functioning in spite of not knowing what they are policing.

They carry on because, well, these bureaucracies are on the payroll – they don’t need to worry about the changing economic landscape on a daily basis.

They have big fat pensions waiting for them. Most of all, if you stick around long enough and be loyal, you will be rewarded with the mayor’s position. Ask around you: the public’s perception of most city or town councils are punitive (not supportive) in nature.

Herein lies the problem: our mayors are not accountable to the people because they were not voted into their jobs.

In most parts of the world, a mayor is a good litmus test of future national leadership (read: Jokowi) – not here in “Malaysia, Truly Asia”.

To my amateur bystander logic, it seems like a reward for staying the same.

There’s been so much talk about reviving local council elections but there is almost zero political will from both sides of the political divide.

All eyes are on the national leadership chase when the real thing we need is local leadership.

What being a mayor holds as a potential is for non-politically aligned individuals of influence (because running for any public office needs a lot of money) to shape local communities.

We have got it wrong in Malaysia – we think if we change prime ministers, everything will be fine and dandy. We need to flip this logic around.

This fracas between live music venues and local city councils is a longstanding issue in which most politicians see little value.

Hence, the lack of political will until Merdekarya’s plight came to light.

Malaysians don’t really have the opportunity to directly choose their local mayors, aside from the usual national or state elections.

We need to revive the mantra “think global, act local” because our lives happen locally, not nationally. The mayor needs to listen to us, not vice versa.

Maybe from this, finally some new national leader emerges outside of the shark infested waters of party politics. – March 4, 2022.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.