Umno will never allow local council elections - Lokman tells DAP
A DAP leader’s call for local council elections to be held in Kuala Lumpur has ruffled feathers in Umno.
Umno supreme council member Lokman Adam said his party would never allow this to happen.
Interestingly, he also dubbed the suggestion by Federal Territories DAP chief Tan Kok Wai as an internal movement by the “Lim Dynasty” to sabotage DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke’s leadership.
“After Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng’s comments on the non-Malay prime minister issue, now it’s Tan’s turn to repeat the Lim Dynasty’s old desire for local council elections.
“We want to tell Kit Siang, we will never allow local council elections to be held, we will fight it to the end!
“Stop being a tool of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and sabotaging your own party,” Lokman said in a Facebook post last night.
Tan (above) made the suggestion to restore local council elections yesterday, starting with Kuala Lumpur, in an effort to give locals a democratic say in how the capital city is run.
At present, Kuala Lumpur only has MPs, and Kuala Lumpur City Hall is run by the federal government.
Critics, including those from Umno, had in the past warned that local council elections would lead to racial instability as Malays would reportedly lose power in such polls.
Such criticisms were revived after Tan’s call yesterday as espoused by Umno Veterans’ Association chief Mustapha Yaakub.
“Umno veterans understand DAP’s desire to turn Kuala Lumpur into a local government that is represented by members who represent the Chinese, especially DAP.
“For sure, if such elections are held, Chinese representatives will easily win in areas where they are the majority,” he said in a statement yesterday
He added that a local council election in Kuala Lumpur would lead to calls for it to also be held in major cities such as Penang Island, Ipoh, and Johor Bahru.
‘Nightmare for Malays’
Meanwhile, Perikatan Nasional lawmaker Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal also spoke out on the matter.
“Bit by bit, Kit Siang’s Malaysian Dream is set to be fulfilled under the UMDAP movement,” he said on X.
UMDAP is a portmanteau of Umno and DAP.
Wan Fayhsal (above) has portrayed the so-called Kit Siang Malaysian Dream as a nightmare for Malays.
The last time Malaysia held a local council election was in 1963. The next round, which was supposed to be held the following year, was suspended.
The suspension, which was supposed to be temporary, became permanent in 1976 when Parliament passed the Local Government Act resulting in the abolishment of the local government election altogether and only provided for the appointment of local councillors.
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kt comments:
As I pointed out in a previous post, in 2018 when PAS was part of PR, Hadi Awang warned of another 'May 13' if local elections were to be held, as proposed by the DAP.
Hadi expressed his fear (or distaste) for a/any council (local government) dominated by Chinese. The Malay Mail published on 25 December 2018 the following (extracts only):
PETALING JAYA, Dec 25 — A dialogue session with PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang in London yesterday turned into a heated verbal exchange between participants after he invoked the spectre of the bloody May 13 racial riots in warning against local elections.
According to a report by Malaysiakini, Abdul Hadi was earlier responding to a question by a participant on why the former was against the implementation of local council elections.
“When an election is contested only by residents [and does not include those who serve the residents], it is certain that big cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang, Seremban, and Johor Baru would be dominated by DAP Chinese.
UMNO is Taikor in the Madani Government.
ReplyDeleteGot it, DAP ? Else you are in the wrong Government.
Actually, the Melayoo are the majority in many KL constituencies, but UMNO and PAS are stuck in the "Cities are Chinese" mentality.
Hence reason for their absolute objection to Local Government elections.