Selangor report on Local Government Elections

Both the Selangor and Penang PR state governments have commissioned studies on the revival of local governments, resulting in very different reports.

The Penang report holds that the power is in the hand of the federal government and the state can do nothing.

The Selangor report, commissioned to the Coalition of Good Governance (CGG) and submitted in July, listed three solutions to reintroduce local elections, two of which do not require federal consent.

While the report has been made public soon after its submission to the state government, it was widely reported in the media and few have read it. Feel free to share this pdf copy with your friend. LCE paper_final_23Dec2009

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The unsung heroes in Bukit Gantang

How did Nizar win Bukit Gantang when UMNO was expected to win a slight majority of the Malay votes and the polling day on Tuesday prevented many Chinese who had returned for graveyard visit (Qing Ming) from staying on?

This was perhaps the answer. Most Malaysians who do not read Chinese may not have seen this advertisement which appeared on the local section of the major Chinese newspapers on April 4 (Qing Ming Day, Saturday).

The Musical Chair of Malay Politics

Princess Diana once said “three’s a crowd”. I argue in Opinion Asia that this is true not only for Kensington Palace, but also for Malay politics in Malaysia. Thanks to the first-past-the-post electoral system, the three Malay-based parties are caught in a game of musical chairs. For Malaysians and foreigners who wonder when the dust will settle, the answer may be depressing; until one of the three parties that is splitting the Malay vote, UMNO, PKR and PAS, loses the game.

Read on …