{"id":12279,"date":"2015-03-02T14:23:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T06:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=12279"},"modified":"2015-03-02T14:27:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T06:27:14","slug":"bring-back-local-elections-dap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/bring-back-local-elections-dap\/","title":{"rendered":"Bring back local elections: DAP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speech by DAP Johor Chairman and MP for Kluang Liew Chin Tong at DAP Bakri Chinese New Year Open House in Bukit Bakri on 1st March 2015\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"liewchintong03-650x400\"<\/a>

Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong says there is a need to bring back local council elections<\/p><\/div>\n

Fifty years ago, on 1st March 1965 Tunku Abdul Rahman\u2019s Alliance Government \u201ctemporarily\u201d suspended all local elections ostensibly as a part of the response to the Konfrontasi launched by the Sukarno-led Indonesian Government. The Tunku also did promise a return to normalcy once the hostility ends.<\/p>\n

However, what was meant to be temporary has become permanent for the past fifty years with no sign of the return of local elections.<\/p>\n

Please note that having local elections is not the sole solution to all problems facing the Malaysian nation. Far from it.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, democratisation at the local level has proven to be catalyst for improvement in the quality of life in many newly-democratised nations in the past three decades, particularly in the cases of South Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia.<\/p>\n

Malaysia is now stuck in a situation in which any discussion on any substantive reform can be misconstrued and misrepresented in racial terms. The subject of local elections, unfortunately, suffers such a fate. It shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

For Malaysia to move forward, there is a need for us to re-examine the institutional framework we are operating in. The immediate priority is, of course, to create and secure democratic institutions with integrity and free from corruption.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, there is a need for:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \n

    Decentralisation of powers from the Federal Government to the States<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Strengthening the State governments<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Making local governments fully accountable to the voters through elections.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    While there may not need to be a timetable per se, there is a need for Malaysians to start the conversation on what sort of institutions we need to put in place for a better society.<\/p>\n

    I am sure local democracy is one of those items. As long as we discard racial politics, we may be able to see the real benefits of local elections for Malaysians. I hope we don\u2019t have to wait for another fifty years to reverse the cycle.<\/p>\n

    – The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Speech by DAP Johor Chairman and MP for Kluang Liew Chin Tong at DAP Bakri Chinese New Year Open …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12286,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12279\/revisions\/12286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}