KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (Pengerang-BN) is calling for the community to have a bigger say in the selection of councillors, including holding local elections, following the flood that devastated major parts of Malaysia recently.
Holding a local government election will accord the rakyat the power to air their views on whether they agree to certain developments being implemented or proposed by the council leaders, she added.
“In terms of the management of the local councils, I have been stressing from before on the decentralisation of power of the federal and state governments.
“I don’t want to focus so much on local elections today, but personally, I feel this could be among the measures that can be taken to help the public,” she said during the special Dewan Rakyat sitting today.
While not going into details, Azalina’s comments appear to be in line with criticism from various quarters that the impact of the recent disaster had been aggravated by the uncontrolled over-development in recent years.
Acknowledging the sensitivity of this issue, she proposed that the government and opposition could perhaps look into the possibility of local elections through their memorandum of understanding.
“Perhaps they can discuss this as a measure to curb abuse of power by the local authorities when conducting their duties.”
Separately, Azalina urged the government to consider empowering the community when it comes to flood mitigation.
She said this can be done by allowing them to collect data to assess and identify locations that are considered high-risk.
Azalina added that the community can also become first responders in the event of a disaster, acting in the initial phases prior to the arrival of the authorities.
“In the aspect of community readiness, perhaps we need to equip them with early warning systems like sirens and emergency hotlines, and educate them on how to prepare themselves while at home.
“In countries like Japan where there are constant earthquakes, they have systems where the community is ready to face disaster.” – The Vibes, January 20, 2022
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