An elected KL Mayor drives xenophobic politicians insane
Thursday, 05 Feb 2026 9:53 AM MYT
By Praba Ganesan
FEB 5 – The ringgit rises and Malaysians are eager to travel to flaunt relative affluence.
Here’s a question, do not salivate, do not pack the bags yet, who runs these desired destinations? Whether by flight, oceanic voyage or bus, are these cities governed through local elections or not?
Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Cebu, Chiangmai, Delhi, Lahore, Tokyo, London, Paris or New York?
Have a good think before answering. Rattle the head sideways, tell you what, screw columnists and their tricky questions, use AI; Gemini, ChatGPT or perhaps Claude?
They are. Run through elections.
But surely there are exceptions, nations with sanity who do not madly, unthinkingly rush into becoming freely elected cities.
That would be cities in one-party nations of China, Vietnam and North Korea, for Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi or Pyongyang.
But we hate communists, absolutely abhor them. Umno politicians have built their whole careers spewing their hatred for commies and their commie ways which threaten to humiliate, decimate and annihilate our sacred ways.
There is nothing worse than adopting a communist mindset. It is the number one objective for the true Malay nationalist patriot, to keep Malaysia communist free.
We won’t trust those city elections by commies with only party approved candidates. Damn communists!
That leaves us with Singapore and Brunei. Only one is a travel destination, and not an aspirational destination for Umno leaders.
So, who to follow when deciding on local elections? Because every sane city in the world elects its leadership, with different styles and methods, but the bottom line, elect. Not appoint, elect.
A slew of Malay nationalists here oppose elections in a zeal akin to assuming Kuala Lumpur residents deciding their city management means killing the soul of Kuala Lumpur.
What a very weird way of looking at representative government. In their minds, they have to protect Kuala Lumpur residents from their own foolishness.
But they are completely convinced that all the cities named above are competently run, actually wonderfully run, that they would like to visit them.
That they let their children study in them, safe and reassured their children are not in elected asylums.
It’s the who, not the what
Umno, PAS, Bersatu politicians are not opposed to elections, because their parties hold elections, and they are elected at the state and federal levels.
The study by International Islamic University is commissioned to independently validate what a world already knows.
They are not about to crack the code. It’s political cover for DAP, so that an election in Kuala Lumpur has academic backing, not just the backing of political parties.
Which is why Malay nationalists urge studies into the split public schools system, meaning the existence of Chinese vernacular schools and the UEC examination system.
You dare question appointed mayors, we will question Chinese schools and UEC!
This country is so stuck in 1950s trepidations and haunted by ghosts of the past that what we desperately need is group therapy rather than academic research.
The real opposition is not to elections but the ethnic compositions of city leaderships at the end of elections.
It is the spectre of a Chinese mayor for Kuala Lumpur. Which is Armageddon minus the pyrotechnics for them. Inconceivable, impossible and indecent.
They feel Kuala Lumpur residents, even if the majority of them are Malays, are going to vote for a Chinese.
That’s it, that’s what we are really talking about. All the smokescreens and euphemisms are reduced to the fear of the yellow wave.
As long as Putrajaya appoints the KL mayor, he or she will not be ethnic Chinese.
Kuala Lumpur voters are capable of electing the worst kind of mayor, just as Putrajaya is likely to continue appointing mayors few Kuala Lumpur residents know. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
KL the new Gotham City
Former MP Puad Zarkashi fears cartels and gangsters will run Malaysian cities if there were free city elections.
Somehow, if civil servants are appointed and hold no direct accountability to Kuala Lumpur residents but to the politicians who appointed them, they will be eminently capable and corruption free.
Corruption happens when things happen in the dark and are done unquestioningly. Corruption in governance directly correlates to transparency, auditing discipline and judiciary oversight.
People do not steal less because they are good people with great values, people do not steal if the likelihood of them being caught is extremely high.
Elections keep those in power in check. Which is why the first six prime ministers diligently warded off fair elections and administered through the bloated institutional corruption being fought today.
The path to reform was the ending of BN monopoly of power in 2008, and BN’s fall from power in 2018.
Private sector corruptors hate elections because they bring uncertainties. They prefer a fixed power structure they can appease to garner privileges.
Better buy out the same guy in power for decades rather than needing to try to buy out all the guys in position to win power.
Worse, forced to witness each proceeding winner highlight the corruption by previous administrations, dragging the private sector corruptors along in their fall.
This city of floods, empty buildings and dirty night markets
As a grandchild of Kuala City Hall garbage collectors and market cleaners, let me weigh in.
Nothing like local knowledge, eh?
They wake up early to be out serving the city, for decades. They are dead now.
Kuala Lumpur voters are capable of electing the worst kind of mayor, just as Putrajaya is likely to continue appointing mayors few Kuala Lumpur residents know.
An elected mayor has a more direct relationship with the electorate. This is not an earth-shattering reveal, this is just the normal thing that happens in normal democracies.
Why fight the world on this?
Why are so many people who do not suffer the city traffic, never rue the long waits for transit buses after their train rides, never cringe when it rains in case their car floats in a parking lot or dinner is under a bridge, want to tell KL what it needs?
Why are so many adamant KL has to avoid modernity in order to preserve imaginary race symbols?
Why disallow Kuala Lumpur folks the right to argue among themselves about what is best for them rather than allow prime ministers from different corners of the federation determine their leadership?
Maybe these politicians won’t answer while they are in team-mode inside Malaysia.
Maybe when they travel out of the country, to any of the thousands of elected cities from Ankara to Wellington, they can look out of their hotel windows and realise the cities have not burnt themselves to the ground.
This does not have to go on in perpetuity because opponents have in them the ability to play out fears in regular Malaysians.
Stop being alarmists. Start being humans who appreciate democracy.
FEB 5 – The ringgit rises and Malaysians are eager to travel to flaunt relative affluence.
Here’s a question, do not salivate, do not pack the bags yet, who runs these desired destinations? Whether by flight, oceanic voyage or bus, are these cities governed through local elections or not?
Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Cebu, Chiangmai, Delhi, Lahore, Tokyo, London, Paris or New York?
Have a good think before answering. Rattle the head sideways, tell you what, screw columnists and their tricky questions, use AI; Gemini, ChatGPT or perhaps Claude?
They are. Run through elections.
But surely there are exceptions, nations with sanity who do not madly, unthinkingly rush into becoming freely elected cities.
That would be cities in one-party nations of China, Vietnam and North Korea, for Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi or Pyongyang.
But we hate communists, absolutely abhor them. Umno politicians have built their whole careers spewing their hatred for commies and their commie ways which threaten to humiliate, decimate and annihilate our sacred ways.
There is nothing worse than adopting a communist mindset. It is the number one objective for the true Malay nationalist patriot, to keep Malaysia communist free.
We won’t trust those city elections by commies with only party approved candidates. Damn communists!
That leaves us with Singapore and Brunei. Only one is a travel destination, and not an aspirational destination for Umno leaders.
So, who to follow when deciding on local elections? Because every sane city in the world elects its leadership, with different styles and methods, but the bottom line, elect. Not appoint, elect.
A slew of Malay nationalists here oppose elections in a zeal akin to assuming Kuala Lumpur residents deciding their city management means killing the soul of Kuala Lumpur.
What a very weird way of looking at representative government. In their minds, they have to protect Kuala Lumpur residents from their own foolishness.
But they are completely convinced that all the cities named above are competently run, actually wonderfully run, that they would like to visit them.
That they let their children study in them, safe and reassured their children are not in elected asylums.
It’s the who, not the what
Umno, PAS, Bersatu politicians are not opposed to elections, because their parties hold elections, and they are elected at the state and federal levels.
The study by International Islamic University is commissioned to independently validate what a world already knows.
They are not about to crack the code. It’s political cover for DAP, so that an election in Kuala Lumpur has academic backing, not just the backing of political parties.
Which is why Malay nationalists urge studies into the split public schools system, meaning the existence of Chinese vernacular schools and the UEC examination system.
You dare question appointed mayors, we will question Chinese schools and UEC!
This country is so stuck in 1950s trepidations and haunted by ghosts of the past that what we desperately need is group therapy rather than academic research.
The real opposition is not to elections but the ethnic compositions of city leaderships at the end of elections.
It is the spectre of a Chinese mayor for Kuala Lumpur. Which is Armageddon minus the pyrotechnics for them. Inconceivable, impossible and indecent.
They feel Kuala Lumpur residents, even if the majority of them are Malays, are going to vote for a Chinese.
That’s it, that’s what we are really talking about. All the smokescreens and euphemisms are reduced to the fear of the yellow wave.
As long as Putrajaya appoints the KL mayor, he or she will not be ethnic Chinese.
Kuala Lumpur voters are capable of electing the worst kind of mayor, just as Putrajaya is likely to continue appointing mayors few Kuala Lumpur residents know. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
KL the new Gotham City
Former MP Puad Zarkashi fears cartels and gangsters will run Malaysian cities if there were free city elections.
Somehow, if civil servants are appointed and hold no direct accountability to Kuala Lumpur residents but to the politicians who appointed them, they will be eminently capable and corruption free.
Corruption happens when things happen in the dark and are done unquestioningly. Corruption in governance directly correlates to transparency, auditing discipline and judiciary oversight.
People do not steal less because they are good people with great values, people do not steal if the likelihood of them being caught is extremely high.
Elections keep those in power in check. Which is why the first six prime ministers diligently warded off fair elections and administered through the bloated institutional corruption being fought today.
The path to reform was the ending of BN monopoly of power in 2008, and BN’s fall from power in 2018.
Private sector corruptors hate elections because they bring uncertainties. They prefer a fixed power structure they can appease to garner privileges.
Better buy out the same guy in power for decades rather than needing to try to buy out all the guys in position to win power.
Worse, forced to witness each proceeding winner highlight the corruption by previous administrations, dragging the private sector corruptors along in their fall.
This city of floods, empty buildings and dirty night markets
As a grandchild of Kuala City Hall garbage collectors and market cleaners, let me weigh in.
Nothing like local knowledge, eh?
They wake up early to be out serving the city, for decades. They are dead now.
Kuala Lumpur voters are capable of electing the worst kind of mayor, just as Putrajaya is likely to continue appointing mayors few Kuala Lumpur residents know.
An elected mayor has a more direct relationship with the electorate. This is not an earth-shattering reveal, this is just the normal thing that happens in normal democracies.
Why fight the world on this?
Why are so many people who do not suffer the city traffic, never rue the long waits for transit buses after their train rides, never cringe when it rains in case their car floats in a parking lot or dinner is under a bridge, want to tell KL what it needs?
Why are so many adamant KL has to avoid modernity in order to preserve imaginary race symbols?
Why disallow Kuala Lumpur folks the right to argue among themselves about what is best for them rather than allow prime ministers from different corners of the federation determine their leadership?
Maybe these politicians won’t answer while they are in team-mode inside Malaysia.
Maybe when they travel out of the country, to any of the thousands of elected cities from Ankara to Wellington, they can look out of their hotel windows and realise the cities have not burnt themselves to the ground.
This does not have to go on in perpetuity because opponents have in them the ability to play out fears in regular Malaysians.
Stop being alarmists. Start being humans who appreciate democracy.
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