Kedah Gerakan asks Najib to allow local elections
(The Edge) – Kedah Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang today urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to allow local government elections to be held in states run by Pakatan Rakyat (PR), as such a move would serve as a system of checks and balances to local council administration.
In a statement, Tan said the advantages of holding local elections outweighed disadvantages as local government polls would promote transparency and democracy at the local council level.
“Candidates who do not perform and prefer to spend more time campaigning and ‘politicking’ would likely be rejected by the local people. They would be made accountable to the local people.
“Let the people compare the administration of local councils in states which adopt such an election with states without such elections,” Tan said, urging Najib to reconsider his stand.
Najib today said it was unnecessary to re-introduce local government elections as it would only give rise to more politicking amongst local council members and would not necessarily improve services to the people.
Tan also reiterated that the federal government should assist PR states to conduct local elections, including making legislative amendments to facilitate the restoration of the third vote.
The push by several quarters for local elections received a boost after Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim recently pledged to urge the Election Commission (EC) to restore local government elections.
PR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, meanwhile, said the federal opposition coalition had already given approval in principle to the matter but would only make a decision for the other PR-held states — Kedah and Kelantan — depending on Penang’s progress.
On another matter, Gerakan Youth chief Lim Si Pin today submitted to the government a memorandum with five proposals to ensure that National Civics Bureau or Biro Tata Negara (BTN) courses would comply with the 1Malaysia spirit.
Gerakan Youth’s suggestions include the formation of a special working committee to re-evaluate the format and content of the BTN courses, employing more non-Malay BTN lecturers and ensuring that its content was based on the Federal Constitution and 1Malaysia.
“Gerakan Youth also suggests that BTN should be renamed Biro1Malaysia to suit the prime minister’s wishes to uphold the spirit and the values of 1Malaysia,” said its statement. The memorandum was received by Najib’s special officer Ravin Ponniah at the Prime Minister’s Department.
The BTN came under fire late last year after the Selangor government said it would ban its civil servants, staff of state subsidiaries and students in state-owned educational institutions from attending the courses.
