Penang Watch

Tuesday July 8, 2008(Star)
Elite among 93 local councillors

IPOH: A former Industrial Court president and a former Royal Malaysian Navy admiral are among the 93 people appointed as local councillors in the state.

Describing the appointments as a mix of elite and working group, Perak Education, Local Government, Housing and Public Transport Com-mittee chairman Nga Kor Ming said they represented all segments of society.

“This shows the Pakatan Rakyat is a government for all,” he said.

Former Industrial Court president V.N.R. Rajasegaran was appointed as an Ipoh city councillor while First Admiral Datuk Ahmad Radzi Omar was appointed as a Manjung municipal councillor.

There was a Local GOvernment Forum recently-and Penang Watch is again not invited! Penang Watch used to gatecrash to previous meetings of this Consultative meeting because local government is the focus of monitoring for Penang Watch since its beginning 2 years ago. The past state government may have a reason to exclude Penang Watch from its `invitation only' consultative meeting on local government -does the new state government share the same `reason'? We will enquire from YB Chow who chair the Consultative meeting.

Before the Councilors can show much results from their work they are demanding more allowances! Incredible! Councilors are not full/time jobs -so those who want to rely on it to survive should perhaps leave the job and let others who afford the time & commitment to take over.  

Selangor's CM is right to say that it is difficult to `select' Councilors from some many who want the job-so why not hold an election for the people to choose then? That will close the mouth of the `party warriors' who may not be able to hold themselves in a ppular poll! Then the selected Councilors are given a study tour to Singapore even before they start work! This even go ebyond the previous regime which `reward' the Councilors to overseas trip(complete with belly dancing treat) after they deliver their job. Are we going forward or back ward here? Is n't it better if the Councilors are voted -then we know if the residnets approve of such `job' done by the Councilors?  

Yeoh Soon Hin(DAP) will stand alone as the country's only Assembltperson who insist on carrying on Selangor BN's notorious `tradition' of allowing Assemblyperson to double up as Councilors. According to the rules once appointed Councilors are supposed to act without interference from the state government -so how do Yeoh propsoe to avoid interfering in the Council when he is an Assemblyperson himself? Isn't the better thing to do is for him to make an exit from the Council ASAP before he continue as an embarassment to the State Government for the next 5 years? The new Councilors list from Selangor only go to prove that even Yeoh's DAP colleagues in Selangor is sensitive enough not to take the people for granted.

It’s the system that makes the councillor
Goh Ban Lee

ACCORDING to Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, "it used to be very rewarding under the previous state government to be

appointed a local councillor". Under the Pakatan Rakyat government, he assured, there would not be "a lot of perks, financial gains and benefits" (The Star, June 14).

What are the benefits of serving as a local councillor? Do they have opportunities for inordinate financial gains and benefits?

For those dreaming of riches, becoming councillors should never cross their minds. They get an allowance ranging from RM350 to RM1,000 a month, made up of a fixed allowance and a meeting allowance.