Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on December 5 - 11, 2016.

 

According to Johan Saravanamuttu, the first election to be held in Malaysia was in George Town, Penang, at the municipal level on Dec 1, 1951. In conjunction with the 65th anniversary of the election, the Penang Institute organised a George Town Roundtable on Local Democracy on Dev 3 in Penang. The roundtable was led by Penang Institute director Steven Sim and officiated by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. I was honoured to be invited to chair it.

The 1951 George Town election was based on a number of constituencies, called “wards”. More than than one candidate was elected per ward. The polls were to elect nine councillors, while the British High Commissioner appointed six. There were altogether 24 candidates fielded by the Radical Party, Umno and Labour Party, with three independents.

According to Steven Sim and Koay Su-Lyn, 14,514 voters turned out. The distribution for each ward was Tanjung: 7,782; Kelawei: 2,439; and Jelutong: 4,293. The Radical Party took the honours with six wins while the Labour Party and an independent took one each.

This election marked an unprecedented move to popularise the novel idea of mass electoral registration, training of polling staff, campaigning and mobilisation, thus educating the people for the nation’s first general election, which was to be held eight years later in 1959. It reflected a sense of political awakening among the locals, who had started to show interest in the democratic process. Campaigning was carried out harmoniously in open spaces and parks.

In 1956, the George Town council became a fully elected council — the first in Malaysia. Five wards were created, with each electing one councillor each year. The president was elected from and by the councillors themselves. In January 1957, George Town was granted city status and became a city council — the only one at the time. George Town was fully autonomous financially and was the richest local authority, with annual revenue almost double that of the state of Penang.

Up until the 1960s, Malaysia had 373 local authorities with well over 3,000 elected representatives out of a total of 4,223 local councillors. This number excluded those in the municipality of Kuala Lumpur,  which came under a separate jurisdiction because it was the federal capital. The three most prominent municipalities were George Town, Ipoh and Melaka. Elsewhere, there were 37 town councils, 37 town boards, 289 local councils and seven district councils. Penang and Melaka were the two states that had statewide local councils, and only Penang had fully elected councils throughout its territories on the island and the mainland.

Unfortunately, the local council elections that were scheduled for 1965 and 1966 were suspended on the grounds of an emergency situation due to Indonesia’s confrontation with Malaysia.

In June 1965, the government set up a “Royal Commission of Inquiry on Local Authorities”, headed by Senator Athi Nahappan. It completed its work in December 1968, and called for the restoration of elected local government.

But the federal government chose to ignore the findings and recommendations of the commission. The ending of the local authority elections was completed when the government enacted the Local Government Act 1976. The Act only allowed for the establishment of 12 municipalities and 90 district councils within three years. But most detrimental of all was that the members of these councils would be appointed and not elected, and in most cases, the chairman would be the district officer or some other civil servant. This is the system of local government that Malaysia now has.

The Pakatan Harapan states of Penang and Selangor have tried to restore local government elections. The Penang government attempted to revive them through the Local Government Elections (Penang Island and Province Wellesley) Enactment 2012, but the request was rejected by the federal government. The Selangor government appointed civil society representatives to the councils. Both state governments have embarked on local government reform initiatives, for example, gender-responsive budgeting and smartphone app systems for improved public/council interaction and services.

The roundtable on Dec 3 was aimed at discussing the future of local democracy in Penang and in the rest of the country. With no more local elections today, it does mean that local democracy is dead. And even when local elections are restored, institutional reforms must still be carried out because further democratisation does not stop with the bringing back of local elections.

The roundtable was designed in a framework of grassroots development that is integrated, inclusive, balanced and dynamic, based on universal values and virtues, self-developed by the local community, and with the cooperation of all stakeholders. It discussed five strategic areas: widening the decision-making process, grassroot peoples’ empowerment, institutional reforms, participatory budgeting and global benchmarking.


Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah (twitter: @saifuddinabd) is chief secretary of Pakatan Harapan and former deputy minister of  Higher Education

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