PETALING JAYA: Amanah president Mohamad Sabu has renewed calls for local government elections to be reinstated so that non-political representatives could be appointed to city councils.

The Kota Raja MP said that currently, local authorities were composed of those who were loyal to party leaders and compelled to follow orders for fear of being sacked.

Mohamad said that if the reason for the continuous suspension of local government elections was due to concerns that a single race would dominate in governing urban areas, this could be discussed in Parliament.

"We can discuss this in a committee formed in Parliament in order to ensure that no one will be sidelined in the local government elections.

"Now, city council members are loyal to party leaders.

"If they are from Parti Amanah Negara, then they have to listen to me or else, I can sack them.

"But if there are local government elections, they would have to serve the people and introduce themselves to the people so that they can win in the polls," the Amanah president told the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Sept 14).

He also said that many leaders of countries had started from contesting in local elections, citing the examples of Indonesian president Joko Widodo, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"This shows that local government elections are important," he said.

Earlier, Mohamad also stressed the importance of lawmakers being able to craft better welfare policies for the people in Parliament, saying that currently, MPs and assemblymen were playing the role of "welfare officers" without being able to create comprehensive welfare policies for the people.

"Our roles are like welfare officers when in reality, MPs are policymakers. That's why we have to return to the real function.

"For example, welfare policies should be crafted by lawmakers in Parliament," he said.

Mohamad had cited an example of his constituents in Kota Raja, a married couple with two disabled teenage children to illustrate why lawmakers must create better welfare policies.

He said that one of the parents had to stop working in order to care for their paralysed children full-time.

"A caring nation must have a policy in place where for such families that are having to care for disabled family members, the government must pay full salary to one of the caretakers.

"Such welfare policies are what lawmakers should do," he said.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/09/14/mat-sabu-renews-calls-for-reinstatement-of-local-govt-polls