VARIOUS Petaling Jaya community WhatsApp groups have been full of news and comments this week about the MBPJ councillors’ walkout from council meetings.

Most Petaling Jaya residents were heaping praise on their fellow councillors for daring to rebel against the mayor’s decision to approve a development project in Lorong Sultan.

This was undoubtedly a political feat to behold because our councillors are usually subservient to the state government. It was shocking that they were actually doing their duty of holding the executive accountable.

The fact that this is such a rare occurrence shows the lack of democracy and accountability within our local councils. 

The arguments for the third vote are well documented but it bears repeating that our local councils need elections to be able to fairly represent the local communities.

If the walkout had not occurred, the public would not have known that the mayor had attempted to bulldoze through a development project.

It is also worth noting that 19 of the 24 councillors had objected to the project. This was akin to a vote of no confidence. If this had happened in parliament, the prime minister would have been ejected from office. 

The mayor did not just ignore the opposing views but also presented the decision in the council meeting as a fait accompli. 

If any federal government had attempted to such a move, opposition MPs would not have merely settled for a walkout; there would have been street protests at the death of democracy.

The Petaling Jaya mayor should count himself lucky that his position remains secure.

This is why Malaysia’s local council needs elections. As the country has now experienced numerous changes of government at both the federal and state levels, the worry of whether a change of local government would create instability is increasingly unfounded.

Moreover, local councillors change as soon as there is a change in state government as the appointments are up to the chief minister or menteri besar.

Therefore, state elections are actually an act of choosing two layers of government (state and local) with only one vote.

This is also why, under the appointment system, councillors will always be subservient to the state government and less likely to do what’s best for the people.

Coming back to Petaling Jaya, I would argue that the lack of local elections is also detrimental for Pakatan Harapan in Selangor.

As things stand, voters troubled by the actions of the local council can only vent their frustrations at the state level by voting against PH. There is no political recourse for voters at the local level at this juncture.

However, by offering a third vote, the political damage would be mitigated as there is another added layer of accountability where incompetent councillors would be punished.

This third vote could also be a magic bullet for PH and BN aspiring to compete with Perikatan Nasional on the east coast.

I have long argued that local elections are a must in Kelantan and Terengganu to dismantle racial myths and introduce the merits of allowing people to vote for their own local councils.

PAS may be the all-dominating force in Kelantan and Terengganu, but even it will not be able to win every single council seat. This could allow PH and BN to start building their political base at the local level.

Letting Kelantan and Terengganu pilot local elections would debunk the claims of Abdul Hadi Awang that only the minorities stand to gain from local elections. After all, most of the districts in Kelantan are Malay dominated.

It is, of course, a political move that is full of uncertainty and risks, but the present situation is also untenable as Malaysians are now more aware of their local rights.

Most of all, it is the democratic policy to pursue. – June 4, 2023.

* Kenneth Cheng has always been interested in the interplay between human rights and government but more importantly he is a father of two cats, Tangyuan and Toufu. When he is not attending to his feline matters, he is most likely reading books about politics and human rights or playing video games. He is a firm believer in the dictum “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”.

* 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.