One of the four wrought-iron benches with the MP’s Chinese engraved on it, that were installed at the pedestrian pavement next to the filthy-and-smelly drain in Luyang (opposite the Diamond Restaurant), which had become a talk of the town.
by Dr Oh Ei Sun
While I was busy conducting “youth diplomacy” in China last week, my handphone service also “roamed” there. The readers may recall that part of my United Nations career included a stint in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN specialized agency at Geneva, Switzerland. It is primarily due to the important standardization and radiocommunication works at ITU that many of us frequent travelers enjoy seamless connectivity almost anywhere we go.
In any case, my “roaming” handphone was unexpectedly inundated with an unusual amount of short messages, mostly informing me about or inquiring my views on a certain “bench by the trench” in Luyang, where I have been living for most part of my life, except for my sojourns abroad. Upon returning from China and reading up on newspapers, I realized that a lot of barbs had been traded between those who built the benches and those who oppose them. This started me thinking, especially on how mature democracies actually work, as I observed them first-hand…
The readers may again recall that I spent almost a decade in the United States, arguably one of the world’s most mature democracies. Why do I keep talking about the US? Because we as a nation allegedly want to achieve developed nation status in the year 2020, which is merely 14 years away. If we were to benchmark a developed country for the purpose, we might as well – in the passé, jingoistic spirit of Malaysia Boleh! – benchmark the most developed country, and whether you like it or not, that is the United States.
In US, not only are the representatives (commonly called “congressmen”, equivalent to our members of parliament) elected by the people every two years, but also the senators, with each state, regardless of its size or population, entitled to two senators popularly elected for six-year terms. And Americans take separation of powers very seriously. The president is separately elected for four-year terms (at most twice), and may be from a different party than the majority party in the House of Representatives (equivalent to our Dewan Rakyat), which in turn may yet again be different from the Senate majority party. As such, the legislative and executive branches of the government may be deemed to be truly independent of each other.
One consequence of this separation-of-power arrangement is that not only congressmen may not serve in the executive branch, least of all as cabinet secretaries (ministers), they also cannot and do not depend on the largesse of the executive branch in doling out funds for development in their constituencies. Instead, annual national budgets are laboriously worked out between the executive and legislative branches, and congressmen fight vigorously for appropriations benefiting their respective constituencies. Rounds and rounds of negotiations are held before compromises are reached in the form of an “omnibus” (consolidated) budget bill.
In any case, development funds are ultimately derived from taxpayers’ money, and as such they properly belong to the people and not to any individual representative. The congressman may thus not justifiably claim credit for works done using these funds. When public infrastructural projects are being undertaken in the US, typically there are seldom tacky plaques engraved with brazenly self-congratulatory “Built by the Congressional Funds of Congressman Jerry Fitzgerald” or equally self-aggrandizing “Brought to You by Senator Bobby Squibb”. That will be frowned upon by the electorate as both works of poor taste and insults to people’s intelligence. The local residents would shout down the congressman, “It’s not your money, stupid! How dare you!” At most, subtle and heart-warming “Your Tax Dollar at Work” or “Your Tax Money in Action” signs, often done elegantly, may be displayed near those sites, and only for major public infrastructural projects.
Just like residents of communities elsewhere in the world, Americans typically welcome beatification projects that could truly upgrade the quality of life in their local communities. But they also realize these are jobs that should properly be carried out by the municipality and only at the very last resort, the congressmen. Congressmen should concentrate their deliberative efforts on the larger, national issues such as trade, defence and foreign affairs, which are especially important in this age of globalization. Unblocking drains and mosquito fogging are important citizen concerns, but they should be done by the municipality, not the congressmen. Crude attempts on the part of the congressman at blatant self-glorification, coupled with wanton neglects on the larger issues concerning the people, will surely backfire, unless the person concerned sincerely and genuinely apologise for his misdeeds.
And I am impressed to observe that similar sentiments are found right here in Malaysia. While taking yet another of my eventful taxi rides recently in Kuala Lumpur, I chatted with the driver. After he excitedly complained about the current difficult times of being a taxi driver, not least dealing with incessant bureaucratic tussles, I asked him if his member of parliament (MP) did not assist him in such dealings. Unexpectedly, he shot back vehemently, that he knows “what is big and what is small”, that he voted for his MP not so that the MP would get entangled with his (driver’s) official dealings – tough that might have been – but so that the MP could work to improve the nation’s general well-being and development. The driver must have thought I was out of my mind, smiling approvingly at his reply.
Alas, what we do not need are makeshift cosmetic improvements with (at best) dubious utility here and there, especially in a municipality with city status. What is sorely needed in many local instances is a comprehensive yet implementable municipal masterplan that is formulated after extensive consultation with the local residents concerned. Such a masterplan, which covers the economic and industrial, utilities and public, recreational and cultural, not to mention transportation and communication sectors, must be faithfully carried out and not be then gerrymandered to death.
I also observed with annoyance the recent saga about a certain Mr. Zakaria, who is not only a state assemblyman but also a municipal councilor in Selangor. And to top it up, both his son and his daughter-in-law also sit in the same municipal council! In America, such a blatant character will long be a laughing stock and summarily swept out of office with his entourage. O, but excuse me, I forgot, we don’t have local elections here. So at most he could only be “persuaded” out of office by “somebody from higher up”.
OK, I am going to come out formally on this. I think it is high time that we restore local and municipal elections in this country. Local governments are the authorities which are closest to common folks’ daily life, being responsibly for local utilities and services. The best way to render local governments accountable is to hold local elections, so that the voters could ultimately decide whether to keep a councilor (if he is honest and capable) or to replace him (if he is corrupt and incompetent).
“O, but we are not ready / not mature enough for that…” So the detractors may tell me. That is a specious and laughable argument. First of all, we are a mere 14 years away from 2020 whereupon we will be a developed country, and you are telling me we are not ready for local elections? Either these defenders of status quo are questioning the achievability of Vision 2020 – in which case please come out and admit so – or you are being disingenuous. Keep in mind, a developed country must be developed not only in its “hardware”, but also in its “software”, including its people’s political maturity.
Second, we used to have local elections in the early days of Merdeka, and they were stripped away due to communist insurgency. But the communists are gone now, and even China, the world’s largest communist country, started experimenting with local, even village-level, elections. Or are you, the not so disinterested, telling me with a straight face that we were more mature half a century ago than we are now? Then you must necessarily imply that we are getting progressively more stupid after 50 years of independence. And if so, why is that so? What caused it so?
Third, the political maturity/readiness argument also doesn’t hold water logically. If we are not mature enough to elect local officials, why is it that we are apt to elect state assemblymen and MPs? This is akin to telling a baby, “Hey, you are not mature enough to crawl, but you can run!” What kind of absurdity is this? Well, may be we are indeed not mature enough, else why would we sometimes elect the same person to different levels of public posts simultaneously, or allow them to be both elected and appointed at the same time? In US, a state assemblyman typically will have to resign if he is elected a congressman, else the electorate would perceive him as greedy and it would be his political kiss of death.
And sometimes the detractors would bring in the “We are multi-racial country with Asian values” argument. What, are you telling me India is not a through-and-through Asian country with staunch Asian values and probably the most racially diverse country in the world? Yet India holds local elections. America has also always been a multiracial country since its earliest days, and like India of today, it was not a developed country, yet it has been holding local elections since its founding days. What do you have to say about that? Or are you implying that after half a century, the racial harmony in this country is still wanting? If so, again, why is that so? What caused it so?
In a related vein, I condemn the recent statement made by the Selangor Menteri Besar that Mr. Zakaria’s unapproved “palace” could not be demolished, as if the local authorities were to do so, they would also have to demolish many unapproved Indian and Chinese temples as well, according to Nanyang Siang Pau.
The Menteri Besar either deliberately or inadvertently, but certainly unwisely, played the race and religion cards in this instance. You simply cannot put in the same category revered, long-standing places of worships which serve the spiritual needs of a community but which may be constrained in its site choice by bureaucratic hurdles, and multi-million dollar villas built with wanton disrespect for the law for the private enjoyment of its owners. Solutions should be carefully worked out for the former, immediate actions taken on the later. The Menteri Besar should apologise to the people for his offensive remarks, which is tantamount to an insult to the intelligence of the people of his state.
The Prime Minister famously observed that we have first-class facility but third-class mentality. I think he is right on with this observation. Allow me to elaborate. In Malaysia we have this mentality that the government, being government, is omnipotent and is the ultimate solution for all our ills and woes. For example, “economy is not good, ask government for help, get projects, etc.” That is the mentality of a third-world country.
For a first-world country, government is – paraphrasing one of America’s founding father, Thomas Paine (yes, even in those early days of America, people were mature enough to think so) – “a necessary evil”. “Necessary” because else we will be engulfed by anarchy and the rules of the jungle. But “evil” because a government with all the powers aggregated to it and without the necessary check and balance may tend to become autocratic and not responsive to the needs of the people. Across the Atlantic, Lord Acton famously observed, “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely”. As citizens it is our right and our duty to constantly keep a vigilant eye on the government and its members, to see if they are doing the relevant and necessary things for the true benefits of the people, or if they are abusing its power for the benefits of the few and the privileged.
Sometimes it could be that the government is a sound-minded, responsible one, but then there are individual members of the government who are more interested in self-promotion than with genuine policy implementation. It is thus important for us to speak our mind when it comes to ill-conceived, illogical matters on the part of the government or its members. If good, we praise. If bad, we condemn, and if they dare not to repent, we vote them out! That is the sign of a mature democracy.
My dear readers, these are only the preview on my discourse on true democracy. Let us all live up to Abraham Lincoln’s call, that a “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth”.
*During his years abroad, Dr. Oh Ei Sun lived and worked in many a democracy and autocracy, and he wishes from the bottom of his heart that all of us are imbued with the true essence of a democratic society and nation. He welcomes comments and suggestions at [email protected]