Local elections offer cure for costly centralised governance, says academic

Free Malaysia Today

08-05-2025

Tricia Yeoh from University of Nottingham Malaysia's School of Politics and International Relations with academic Andrew Harding at his book launch in Kuala Lumpur last night.
KUALA LUMPUR : An academic has argued that the inefficiency and disengagement at the federal and state levels of government are more costly than the implementation of local elections.
Andrew Harding, an Asian legal studies scholar, said local elections in Malaysia would introduce better checks and balances as local authorities would be subject to 'constitutional constraints'.
'By electing local officials, there are more opportunities to stop corruption, and the people can dismiss them from office – unlike appointed officials who answer to higher-ups in the system,' he said at the launch of his book, Territorial Governance in Southeast Asia, here last night.
In his book, Harding, a constitutional law expert, also questioned whether democracy could truly exist without local elections and participation.
Harding said that local elections would decentralise power from the federal and state governments, giving the people a stronger voice in national governance.
He also called on the government to reinstate local elections, which were suspended in the 1960s and later replaced by a system of appointed heads, where state mayors of city councils and presidents of municipal and district councils are appointed by the state governments.
In 2018, Pakatan Harapan proposed the revival of local elections as a pilot project.
In December 2023, housing and local government minister Nga Kor Ming said reinstating local council elections was not a priority for the government.