Wong shows the Private Member’s Motion by him, which was rejected by the Speaker during the Assembly sitting.
THE motion by Wong King Wei (DAP-Padungan) in seeking the implementation of local authority election was dismissed by State Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar.
Part of Wong’s Private Member’s Motion called on the state government to take immediate step towards implementing and to hold local authority election for the Statutory Position of all 26 local authorities in Sarawak in order to ensure efficiency and accountability of local authorities.
Asfia, in his ruling, emphasised that the election cost would be gigantic with the whole of Kuching city – north and south, Bintulu in the Bintulu Development Area (BDA), together with 24 local councils throughout the state.
“Under Item 4(A) of the List 2 of the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution, local government election is a state responsibility. This means that any local government election is to be organised, conducted and funded by the state government.
“The election commission is empowered to carry out parliamentary and state assembly election by virtue of Article 113 (1) of the Federal Constitution. Further, Section 97 (1) of the Local Authority Ordinance provides that no local authority in Sarawak is financially autonomous.”
This, Asfia pointed out, would therefore dig deep into the funds of the treasury. He said to conduct the election, the state government would have to provide funds for the setup of requisite infrastructure, delineation of electoral, registration and publication of electoral rolls, and set up the mandatory machinery to conduct the election – from nomination to polling day.
“Under Regulation 13 (1) of the Local Government Regulation 1963, a local government election could be held any time six months after the dissolution of the State Legislative Assembly.”
Moreoever, Asfia added that politicking would be done one after another election with the first state election, then local authority election and later parliamentary election.
“There would be an intensification of politicking and engineering by political parties and people in a series of hotly contested elections at a very local level.” These activities, he opined, could undermine the political stability of the state and trigger divisiveness among the people.
“There was a prevalent political stability when local government election was held in 1950s and 1960s, which was damaging to Sarawak – economically and politically
“This resonate the introduction of local government suspension of the Ordinance in 1971. Democracy was first introduced in Sarawak by will of election at three levels from local council level, divisional to state level called ‘Council Negeri’.”
With the abolition of council election, Asfia explained that the name of Council Negeri was replaced with ‘Dewan Undangan Negeri’ (State Legislative Assembly).
Asfia added that to allow a local council election would reverse the clock back, now that the DUN represented full-fledged democracy at state level.
“Because local authority election incurred astronomical cost, this motion violate Standing Order 23 (5) which reads: a motion which directly or indirectly involved any such grant, charge expenditure, releases remission of compensation as mentioned in paragraph 4 (A) to (D) shall be treated seeking grant, charge expenditure, release remission of compensation unless the said minister signify in writing that it does not go beyond what is incidental only and not of a substantial nature having regard to the purpose of the motion.
“There is no consent of the minister concerned in writing, the motion is therefore dismissed.”
Wong, who was very unhappy with the ruling, later criticised that astronomical cost of local government election would always happen whenever money politics were at play.
“In order to be fair, my motion seeks the state government to transform the management system of DBKU (Kuching North City Commission) and BDA into the management system; similar to all the other 24 local authorities, which consist of mayor/chairman, deputy mayor/deputy chairman and councillors (collectively referred to as ‘the statutory position’).
“My resolution is mainly seeking for enhancement in local government policy – not the Ordinance. So this motion was rejected on technicality, which was not what I was asking for,” he told a press conference later.
Also, Wong added that it was absurd to use astronomical cost as reason to reject his motion. More importantly, he said the Speaker could not represent any ministry or the government to reply on policy matter.
“Speaker should not represent the state government to make the policy stand, in which my motion is seeking,” he argued.