When the 26 members of the Coalition of Good Governance was formed in 2008, we recommended a set of criteria for the appointment of councillors and this was presented to the public as well as to the Selangor State Government. This was carried out prior to the State Government’s appointment of councillors.
To recap, the CGG recommendation are as follows:
CGG Memorandum to the Selangor State Government
Appointments of Councillors in Local Authorities
2. Membership – selecting members of the local authorities should be a participatory process. Membership of local authorities should as far as possible reflect the diversity of interests in society. There shall be representatives from civil society groups without political party affiliations such as professionals, commerce, labour, residential associations, culture and the arts, people with disabilities, environment, women, youth etc. If there are to representatives from political parties in local councils, a proportionate representation for both ruling and opposition parties should be adopted. In addition, no State Assembly representatives and/or their immediate family members shall be appointed as councillors due to conflict of interest. There should be an overall balance of gender and ethnicity in the local authorities.
3. Criteria – members of the local authorities should be local residents. All appointees should have the measures of competence, merit and integrity as outlined above.
4. Appointment procedures – in adhering to the principles of transparency, accountability and open consultation stated above, the following should be noted:
(a) open nomination: each State Government should list and publish its criteria for membership of local authorities. The local residents should be invited to nominate suitable candidates; and
(b) display list of nominees: The names of all nominees should be made public and complete with their curriculum vitae. The public should be able to give views on the nominees to the State Government before public interviews are held.
(c) public interviews: Short-listed candidates should speak at forums open to the public so as to enable interactions with local residents. Public opinions should be taken into consideration by the State Government in making the final decision of appointment.
5. Accountability – councillors should prepare timely annual reports related to their portfolios. These reports should be published and made available to the public in forums to enable discussions. Citizens may petition to the state government for termination of their services of any councillor if found unsatisfactory.
It is, therefore, disappointing that as we observed the appointment of councillors, there has been a lack of transparency as we do not know the criteria in which councillors are selected, retained, tranferred or removed.
The CGG expresses grave concern as to any appointment, removal or transfer of NGO/professional councillors without proper grounds and reasons. Any appointment, removal or transfer of NGO/professional councillors must be based on clear and transparent creteria fairly and reasonably applied.
We demand that political parties must not be allowed to decide on the appointment, transfer and removal of NGO/professional councillors nor should NGO/professional councillors be ever be treated as nominees or proxies for political parties as this would be a gross violation of the promise of the Pakatan Rakyat. The NGO/professional councillors positions are not the domain of political parties but they are to serve the greater interests of civil society.
On 2 July 2009 (STAR Online), YB Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim mentioned that 25% of the councillors seats were for NGOs. CGG strongly urge the Selangor State Government to strictly follow this allocation and to appoint credible NGOs and professionals, who have proven track record and expertise in their fields.
Issued by the Coalition for Good Governance