Perak village head election a step in the right direction

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Democracy is here to stay, whether our politicians are ready for it or not.

It was interesting to see the reaction of the Pakatan government in Perak to the election of a village head.  They did not seem to be too happy with it.

Congrats to PKR’s Gopeng MP Lee Boon Chye for pushing this through.

And now Selangor might reportedly follow suit with a pilot election for a village head later this year.

I do not see why the Perak government should be so hesitant. Lee Boon Chye has taken a step in the right direction. Pakatan should be working quickly towards democratising all levels of government from the state assemblies, local councils right down to the village and kampong levels. If there are legal hurdles, at the very least PR leaders should be more supportive of pilot projects, trial runs and further studies.

At the moment, they are not even making the right noises about holding local council elections any time soon.

I just hope the PR folks don’t start getting used to the idea of political appointees taking up key positions in local councils as a form of reward for their party faithful. That was – and is – the lousy BN practice. The people voted for change and so the PR’s objective must be democratisation at all levels from Parliament to village/kampong level.

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Dalbinder Singh Gill
Dalbinder Singh Gill
6 Jan 2009 10.04am

i believe nobody will buy their way in s said by dragonia, to me , DAP and many other organizations like MAFREL can play a great watchdog role provided they r not corrupted to disallow anyone from buying their way in . appointing DAP’s as local village head as stated by ckchew is a move into the wrong direction because in the end i am afraid things might run out of the party struggle which reflects clearly in their name, DEMOCRATIC ACTION PARTY, maybe they should change their name then. Dont make bad precedents.

LTH
LTH
6 Jan 2009 12.03am

During GE12, “We will return to the people local council election!!” is the PR manifesto; And this is how they promised: “Just Change It!” After GE12, “There are legal problems to untangle,you know, we can’t just change it!” “We’ll need to move the whole SPR machinery over, will cost many millions, I tell you!” “We tried in Parliament, you saw us, didn’t you?” (note: knowing full well it was an exercise in futility) Haha, after 010109 Gunung Rapat people’s has become such an embarrassment to PR: “We do the election ourselves, at no cost to state gov” “Now go ahead… Read more »

mut
mut
5 Jan 2009 11.29pm

The local council elections have to be restored. If the local councils are not viewed as personal piggy banks, then the state government would be ecstatic for such a move, as the headache of managing local councils would be somewhat shared by the voters. Not everything gets left on the CM’s plate.

I find LGE’s position in your last few postings reminiscent of KTK’s lame duck attitude. The only saving grace is he is NOT UMNO’s hack. This part the Gerakan fellers still don’t get.

dragonia
dragonia
5 Jan 2009 10.07pm

If anyone is allowed to be voted in the local election, the rich BN guys will buy their way in. He will create money politics and probably create more havoc in the municipal council where the council president is also from the federal govt.

ckchew
ckchew
5 Jan 2009 8.50pm

Back off lee boon chai, we want to appoint our dap members as the new village chiefs. why are you trying to stop our moves by having the election? we oppose any move to have a democratic process. it’s our right to appoint anyone from our party to head the new village, ipoh city hall and also mpsp in penang. anyone dare to opposite us will earn our wrath & curse.

Dalbinder Singh Gill
Dalbinder Singh Gill
5 Jan 2009 6.00pm

its the right step, i support it

K
K
5 Jan 2009 4.37pm

Dear Lee San Seong Village election is nothing new, even in Perak. We do not elect PR just for them continue the polices and practices of BN but to make sweeping changes that usher us to the standards of the First World. So kindly refrain from the usual references to the worse practices but benchmark PR govts to their election manifesto and First World standards. Unfortunately many PR Spin-doctors (just like the MSM before) are working over-time to convice the rakyat that they should be thankful for such insignificant gains. About this Perak election, this is clearly a political power… Read more »

Speak Up Malaysia
Speak Up Malaysia
5 Jan 2009 4.34pm

Politicians are all the same. Human beings are all the same. If you give a person unlimited power, 99.9% this person will abuse his or her unlimited power. It’s human nature. It’s an unfortunate fact of life: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. History is full of examples like Adolf Hitler. This is why it does not really matter whether Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat is in power. Don’t be naive to think that Pakatan Rakyat politicians won’t abuse their power when it forms the next Malaysian government, because they will if there are no proper checks and balances… Read more »

Lim Sang Seong
Lim Sang Seong
5 Jan 2009 1.49pm

The local elections is what everyone wants. However, the BN scrapped this mode of representation due to the fact that most of the time, the opposition members got elected to the local councils. Now, in Perak we see that at the village heads level, the PR govt would like to see that the village head is truly a representative of the local populace. This is certainly a positive step in the right direction. I commend the PR govt for this first step. Well, the non-PR states of Johor , Pahang , Negeri Sembilan etc still appoint their village heads. The… Read more »

Chan Teck Hock
Chan Teck Hock
5 Jan 2009 12.47pm

Hello Anil,

On a side issue, do you know that it takes forever to load a page in your blog, lately. There must be a problem with one of your illustrations or files that is causing this.

Yours is one of my favourite blogs which is the first thing I go to when I log on. I am getting frustrated with the wait.

Cheers,
Teck Hock.

looes74
5 Jan 2009 12.14pm

Anil, Collective responsibilities! Anil, Collective responsibilities! Mind you, PKR got 3 Exco members in Perak. Why no alternative proposal for village chief election during usual wednesday EXCo meetings? Would you agree if one fine day, PAS unilaterally declare that implementation of hudud and actually implementing it? Right now, Husam has made the gaffe and luckily PAS has avoided it by declaring any political party within Pakatan Rakyat has not right to unilaterally implement policies within the consent of the other twos Anil, Do you aware of the danger? By the way, 30% of Gunung Rapat village voted. Still not valid.… Read more »

K
K
5 Jan 2009 10.54am

Anil I wouldn’t jump for joy yet. Village head elections is hardly a sea-change since this was in practise even during BN rule. However, I do agree that this is a positive step forward. Having said that I am also note with alarm that the local elections is just being abused by PR just like it was during BN regime by getting PKR/PR reps as head of villages. If we truly want check and balance, there ought to be a separation of power. On a more worrying note, LGE has confirmed that there will be no local council elections due… Read more »

koolgeek
5 Jan 2009 9.52am

this is part of their promise (manifesto) to the Rakyat.

now they want to appoint politicians to MPSJ.

I am somewhat disappointed. where is the promised local council election?

seems like PR is again going back the BN ways of doing things.

we do not want legislative to mess up with executive.

johanssm / khun Pana
johanssm / khun Pana
5 Jan 2009 6.17am

It is actually the right step. And eventually will lead to local election for town/city mayors too. The state gov job is to ensure the chief of village is elected clean and square. Transparency and fair play in the voting process. In the case there are no candidates, the state gov. can appoint someone. We voted for a change and a change is all we wanted. Perak CM should be proud of such initiatives instead of reprimanding the MP. If leaders or the CM dont like it,i dont have to be sorry to say that we will have to change… Read more »