PEOPLE are fed up with their local authorities. The inertia and non-accountability of local councils have resulted in bottlenecks, discontentment and environmental disasters. Looking at successful councils in developed countries, we find that they are elected; council meetings are open; accountability is demanded; there is participation by ratepayers; and there are mechanisms to manage change.
Only a complacent unelected local government can get away with having allowed the lax conditions in which toxic pollution of the air and water in Pasir Gudang occurred not once but twice and elsewhere in Malaysia. Just three months after the Sungai Kim Kim incident where toxic fumes from chemical waste affected some 6,000 residents, we witness another case in Pasir Gudang where many schoolchildren have fallen ill due to suspected air pollution. To date, the source of the air pollution has yet to be identified. Any elected local government would have been forced to resign over such a scandal.
Malaysians are no longer prepared to put up with negligence or irresponsibility. Residents are demanding they be heard at the local council. In this sense we can see why local authorities are considered the primary units of government. Many services including environmental protection, education, housing, health and transport require local knowledge and can be better coordinated and more efficiently implemented through the local authority.
In the modern state, many social groups such as women and manual workers and marginalised communities such as the orang asli are under-represented and local government can provide them with the channels to air their concerns. At this local level it is easier for voters to influence decisions.
Profits before people
Tracing the source of environmental pollution is not rocket science. Police and enforcement agencies are supposed to be able to combat international terrorists. Here we are merely dealing with illegal factories, illegal dumping and illegal toxic emissions. Can you imagine the scenario if there was an ebola outbreak?
It is clear that the authorities have not bothered to enforce regulations. Disruptions in water supply often bring to light that there are illegal factories near the sources of water supply and that regulating authorities have allowed developers to build new housing close to such factories. Such a “profits before people” pattern has been going on for decades because of corruption and the lack of political will to enforce the law to ensure our health and safety because local authorities are appointed by the state governments.
Appointed local authorities are not accountable to their local communities and thus not motivated to take necessary steps, such as the creation of a buffer zone and the regulation of emissions. Has the MACC even bothered to investigate if the local authorities are in the pockets of illegal factory operators? If not, how could such enterprises have got away with illegal activities? What has the Department of Environment been doing about monitoring such polluting industries to identify the culprits and in taking preventive actions?
We see repetition of disasters involving landslides in Penang and elsewhere with unresponsive local governments accountable to nobody except their state governments while migrant workers pay for such negligence with their lives. Developers seem to hold sway.
It was clear that the Alliance and later the BN and now PH prefer the convenience of appointing party cronies as councillors rather than risk the uncertainties of democratic elections. Political party appointments provide the convenience of perpetuating patterns of patronage. The periodic outbursts of discontent by those party leaders and NGO activists who were overlooked are symptoms of this unhealthy party appointment system.
We can’t afford local elections?
Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin has said local elections might be implemented within three years. She said the federal government had arrived at the three-year target as it needed to give priority to other important matters such as ensuring the country was in a stable financial position.
This justification for putting off local council elections is laughable when we bear in mind that even before we became independent, we had our very first democratic election – the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Elections of 1952. It was the first step we took on the way to self-government. At Independence, we continued this commitment to local government elections because appointments to political office were seen as a colonial practice. This is remarkable considering how poor we were compared to today. At Independence our GNP per capita was around US$800. Our GDP per capita is now US$10,000 and we are supposed to be almost a high-income society but we can’t afford local government elections!
One would expect that as our society becomes more mature, democratic principles of accountability at the local community level would be considered the highest of priorities and the minimum new standard of “normal”.
No taxation without representation
In the democratic tradition, taxation cannot be justified without representation. Ratepayers must be represented on the governing body which determines how that money is spent. This is a fundamental precept of parliamentary governance which is critically applicable at local-level government. It is to satisfy the requirement in a democratic society for greater pluralism, participation and responsiveness.
At this time of an environmental crisis, Malaysians should no longer put up with negligence and irresponsibility. Residents are demanding that they be heard at the local council level. In this sense we can see why local authorities are considered the primary units of government.
Bersih must fight for elected local councils
Civil society got together to form Bersih to fight for free and fair elections. Elections are intended to be held at federal, state and local levels, which only then make up the three tiers of government. We marched in all the Bersih rallies to bring about this fundamental concept of democracy that we expect in “New Malaysia”. We did not take part in Bersih to bring about another government that reneges on its promise to have local council elections.
Since Pakatan Harapan continues to drag its feet on bringing back elected local government, it is expected of Bersih to continue the fight for this third tier of democracy.
Kua Kia Soong is adviser to Suaram.
