Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Malaysia's Local Authority Councillors - Unelected, Unaccountable & Unwanted

28 people, representing the Alor Gajah Municipal Council, Malaysia, made a so-called study tour of Beijing and Tianjin cities in China in June. The trip to China by those unelected Council reps cost taxpayers RM 75,000.

Apparently the objective of the tour was to let Council staff learn aspects of city management in other countries, which makes me wonder what the 'F' were 28 of them including Kesidang assemblyman Koh Nai Kwong and various councillors doing on the trip if the benefits of the study tour were meant for Council staff, those actually performing the day to day management of Alor Gajah.

And why the hell do they have to go all the way to China to learn from a country not particularly renown for city management, when a nation with world reputation for superior management of its city lies just south of our border, Singapore.

This has been nothing more than a questionable exercise by unelected parasites putting their snout into the public trough, basically a rort of the public coffers for their own ‘jolly’. I wonder whether the tour took in a session of belly dancing by a Beijing north-western amoi as well.

The sorry episodes of unelected local authority councillors throughout Malaysia rorting the system under the guise of study tours have a long notorious history.

The sooner we have elected councillors, the better. We may not stop such rorting completely but at least we can vote those councillors out at periodic intervals. Right now, they are completely unaccountable.

Let's see at least a faint glimpse of AAB's Islam Hadhari that we have been long promised.

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