The most serious problem at the level of local government in Malaysia is the quality of representative governance. This third tier of federal governance has unfortunately become the full domain and jurisdiction of only local and state politics without sufficient federal \”authority and influence.\” The result is weak and poor governance in most if not all local authorities; about a total of 145 (plus one or two if some \’new non-local authorities\’ are included like Kulim High Tech Park and Putrajaya Corporation).
Some would argue that local governance was never the domain of federal governance and therefore must always remain entirely the jurisdiction of the level of state and local governance; much like Syariah administration. I disagree and suspect that so would most constitutional lawyers and academicians in the country today.
The constitution recognises both second and third tier of governance as joint federal and state responsibilities as distinguished and differentiated by the federal and state lists; with the variations allowed for the Sabah and Sarawak Constitutions. In the British system of governance, this third tier is a real and a very functional system because of the unitary system of governance in the UK. Ours is closer to the Canadian or American system of federated states wherein the state and local Authorities are different and differentiated systems of lower levels of governance. In the American systems, both the states and local jurisdictions have far more authority for governance; especially for local taxes and security issues than our highly centralised system of governance.
The statement of the problem
Any good statement of the problem on any policy issue will make a clear distinction between the ideal and the actual. The ideal of good governance based on our current local government act would require that all three key stakeholder parties; of the elected political elite, the relevant private sector, and the affected community sector or citizens, are jointly involved in collaborating and participatively defining both the problems and the potential solutions for all local governance issues. The goal of good governance would then be to enable a stable, safe, clean and a high quality living environment for all the local neighborhood of residents. In fact the currently promoted the LA21Program by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government seeks to achieve this type of participative good governance at the local level.
Unfortunately, from my experience and observation after living in Petaling Jaya for 20 years, even within MBPJ which was one of the pilot sites, the LA21 is more of an espoused theory rather than a theory-in-use by the federal government programme. Public spaces and playing fields are wantonly \”hijacked by private sectarian interests with impunity,\” leave alone after consultation. The Sun newspaper has been constantly highlighting many of these cases as well.
Therefore the actual situation of local governance in Malaysia is, on the contrary, in a very poor state of affairs. There are only very few good local authorities which are truly well managed and adequately financed. Most have \”Little Emperors\” operating within their midst but who work with their own personal agendas and programmes, regardless of who the president is and what the councilors are able to decide. The case of the now infamous Klang councilor highlighted recently is a very obvious case of one \”little emperor\” who has no fear even for the state government, with only one exception of the Sultan of the state. Nevertheless, these appointed councilors are actually \”full-fledged agents\” of the federal, and therefore by proxy the state governance under the current Act.
While land and related matters are directly a state government matter, I am not sure that good governance is by default also the delegated absolute function of the state authorities. In the specific case of the Petaling Jaya \”billboard payments and collections\” by the MPPJ Football Club, how is it that even after it had been highlighted in the media, no legal action was taken against the relevant culprits even after the Accountant General\’s Report highlighted them? There appears to be a reticence or reluctance to do the right thing. Maybe it is time for the PAC, the AG or the ACA and the federal ministry to take the right action and not pretend to hear no wrong, see no wrong and speak no wrong on this matter. The utter silence all around at the level of federal governance on this matter is truly mind-boggling.
Therefore this matter must be studied by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and the Cabinet if we are serious about creating a culture of transparency, openness and good governance at the local level. How can we allow ignorance of the rule of law become rule by law with a simple and blind disregard for the rules, policies, and procedures of the federal ministries of finance and local governance? Furthermore, how can it also be equally ignored by relevant public authorities even when the auditor-general and PAC have highlighted these issues especially so since almost all these local authorities are more than 70 percent funded from the federal coffers?
How can the Minister of Housing and Local Government and the secretary- general of the Federal Ministry become so impotent on this matter of the rule of jungle warlords? Whose real jurisdictional authority is such good governance at the local level, if not that of the federal government? Can the average tax-paying citizens and local residents be continually cheated and robbed of their rights in this way?
The Athi Nahappan resolution
The Athi Nahappan Report of the early 70\’s encouraged the spirit of participative governance by encouraging elections to be held at the lowest level of governance. Rather unfortunately and because of the then confrontation with Indonesia these recommendations which were provided for in the Local Government Act were \”not gazetted.\” Consequently today, we find a lack of federal accountability for local governance. The five core issues of poor governance at the local level are my great concerns:
1. Insufficient funds for good local governance from local taxes and therefore they are entirely reliant on federal funds via budget and grants. These are however channeled via the Ministry of Finance and not via the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Consequently, although most of the funds are federal, the accountability, other than the Auditor-General\’s Report still remains almost absolutely with the state governments. This issue needs to be raised at the national council on local government chaired by the prime minister and attended by all MBs and chief ministers. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government should be held more accountable for poor governance at the local level.
2. A totally Malay-dominated and non-transparent culture of governance in most if not all local authorities, with some minimal exceptions in Sabah, Sarawak, and maybe Penang. The CPPS Report tabled to the EPU recently also highlighted this issue of \”non-representative participation in the public services of Malaysia.\” The report argued for a more balanced and new 40-60% ratio of non-Malays to Malays in the public services. The absolute standard of local governance can only improve when \”those behind the counter begin to reflect those paying the taxes for the services rendered, especially within local authorities.
3. The staff are generally not well qualified or professionally trained and belong to a closed scheme of service mostly, except for the bosses but they too appear to be selected entirely based on \”political acceptability criteria.\” The professional training and development of a cadre local government service had been the focus of many studies since the early 1970s but to date the problem has not been overcome. Intan used to have a centre of local government focused on training and enabling this level of officers. The most recent meeting of the council for local governance chaired by the deputy prime minister recommended for the \”cross-posting\” of the public servants in this third tier of governance. This is a great idea which needs to be well executed and may be there needs to be a \”new administrative federal service to handle all such local government matters, but with transferable officers.\”
4. Political leadership and direction by the state is defined entirely by \”power-dynamics\” between the centre at the state level with state officials and the periphery at the local level, with local councilors appointed from all government parties. In between these power sources sits the CEO (whether mayor, president or simply the chairman) who moderates between the state-driven power dynamics and seeks compliance with the rules of law. In this context also, the Minister of Housing and Local Government seems to have abdicated his federal responsibility for oversight on the rule of law on this matter by a political stance of complete non-interference. The federal minister is therefore always described as the paper tiger on this issue of local governance. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government needs to take a more accountable view of federal accountability for local governance since 70% of the funding is from federal sources.
5. Moral, political and financial corruption is rife at the local level. The now many \”publicly exposed\” cases in MBPJ, MPSJ and the Klang Municipal Council are enough to make this obvious. On a number of these counts the state exco in Selangor has recently reversed some local authority decisions on \”monopolies\” in the name of \”privatisation.\” Moreover, in the recent \”billboards case,\” the Minister of Works has also staked a \”jurisdictional claim on the federal highway.\” This claim of jurisdiction is another case in point of \”blackmail by sheer weight of size\” but not constitutional principles. Unfortunately, the Minister of Housing and Local Government stayed out of this constitutional controversy. A legal rendering of such \”jurisdictional governance\” needs to be resolved at the level of local governance based on the principle of rule of law and not the sheer influence might of preferences. The state has also conceded to the Works Minister, and only because it is a federally funded and built road. The core constitutional issue is: \”whose jurisdiction is the local space of governance if not that of the local authority but supervised duly by the minister with federal jurisdiction on the subject, and according to the Cabinet Portfolio Act and federal constitution?
Conclusion
Consequently, the 4th NCOI taking place in the Sedaya College has the theme of federal accountability for local governance. We have none other than the Parliamentary chairperson of the PAC as one keynote speaker. The other is the former chairperson of the Bar Council and constitutional lawyer Dr Cyrus Das. If a kind of real federal accountability can be made more obviously evident and linked to the funding of the local governments via the ministry, the local level of governance can improve and there can become a conscious people movement against bribery and corruption. Based on 30 years of public service experience, much of the hardware, software and peopleware can be put in place soon enough. The real core decision point is whether the government has the political will to make the local authorities responsible for real and good local governance. The Sarawak elections established the voice of the people for the need for this kind of new transparency and accountability, especially at the grassroots level; if the federal government wants to be a government with integrity between their espoused theory and their theory-in-use.
The organisers of the National Congress on Integrity hold the federal government responsible and accountable for integrity between the policy intent (the Local Government Act), their espoused theory (Local Government Policies like LA21) and the theory-in-use (public service delivery at the local level). We are therefore arguing for a people movement against moral, political and financial bribery and corruption that we call, ABC4Malaysia or Against Bribery and Corruption in Malaysia. All the relevant core issues will be discussed, dialogued and debated. I hope malaysiakini readers would take the time to attend this congress.
