Its chairman Thomas Fann proposed at least four non-political appointments from organised civil societies or the public for each of the 14 local councils in Johor.
“This would be in keeping with their (PH) manifesto promise to let civil society engage directly with local councils,” he said in a statement today.
He was referring to a statement by Tan Hong Pin, the Johor Exco for local government and science and technology, who reportedly said all councillors would come from component parties in PH.
Tan was reported in The Sun Online on June 13 as saying PH was pushing for local government elections as promised in the PH manifesto.
Fann said while the NGO welcomed PH’s push for local government elections, it was dismayed that only representatives from PH’s component parties would be appointed as local councillors.
“The whole purpose of holding local government elections is to allow the public to have a say as to who represents them in the council and how their residential areas are maintained.
“The public would have an opportunity to remove non-performing councillors and demand better services from their local councils.”
He added that for more than 53 years since local elections were abolished in 1965, the people had been rendered voiceless on local issues.
That’s because the mayors and councillors running the local authorities were appointed by the state government and not accountable to the people, he said.
He said the previous Barisan Nasional government had abused the absence of the third vote to appoint mayors and councillors as a “reward” for being party loyalists who were not answerable to the public.
“This led to poorly maintained public amenities and services in many of our cities and towns.
“Corruption and cronyism are also rife in local councils as representatives belong to the same party or coalition with no ‘outsiders’ to be a check and balance to them.”
ENGAGE also called on the PH government to make the local councils’ budgets public, hold public hearing sessions and allow public access to the full board meetings of municipal councils.
“Taxpayers who pay assessment rates to local councils should have the right to know how the councils are utilising their tax revenues.”