The quality of our municipal councillors

MALAYSIA: When news first broke that a state assemblyman and municipal councillor Datuk Zakaria Md Deros had build a four-storey mansion on state land without proper approval, I just brushed it off. To me this is not unusual in Malaysia. People in power generally gets away with a lot of things. However, when The Star today reported another municipal councillor Mazlynoor Abdul Latiff building his mansion without obtaining proper permit, this article caught my attention - not so much of the fact that another municipal councillor broke the law but how he justified himself.

He was reported to have claimed that other councillors had also built mansions within the area without building plans. “So, you visited the area. You took a lot of photographs. No reason for you to highlight the matter. Everyone is doing it, but my house is small,” he said.

Here, we have a councillor who run a municipality, whose job is to give approval to permits, now breaks the law and have the cheek to try to justify himself. And the most stupid thing about his justification is that "other councillors are also doing it (building without the proper permit)". The worst thing is that he felt that even if he is in the wrong, he offence is insignificant because his mansion is small! If this is the justification he is using, then I would be very worried. This smacks of abuse of power, irresponsibility and dishonesty. I may not expect people of his integrity to expose his fellow councillors, but to join the others in breaking the law is simply not acceptable.

The way these cases are handled also amazed me. Datuk Zakaria was only fine $5000. After that he gets to keep his mansion. Ordinarily, a common citizen would have had his house torn down because it will be deemed unsafe without the proper permit. In the both the cases involving the councillors, both mansions will not be torn down because according to council president Abdul Bakir Zin, “The bungalow will not be demolished as it is 80% completed". To me this is a case of you-scratch-my-back-and-I-scratch-yours.

The comment Prime Minister Badawi about the case is also very surprising. He was quoted as saying that "what Datuk Zakaria did was not good in the eyes of the public. We are from the ruling party and we are holding posts. So, definitely the people are not happy. It is all right if approval had been given. But, when there is no approval, naturally the people will be unhappy". If one look into the words used, one will get the feeling that he was not upset about the whole incident although the law was breached, but more a focus on the people not being happy because Datuk Zakaria have the means to build a mansion. I am so sad for the Prime Minister. How can he feel this way when representatives of the government had broken the very law they are entrusted to uphold? The actions of the government's representatives will only reflect badly on the government itself. No wonder the public has such low opinion of government servants and the government itself!

I hope the ACA will look into all these cases and investigate further as councillor Mazlynoor had already indicated that others are doing the same thing. I also wonder what "other same things" are being carried out by the councillors. The government owes the rakyat an explanation and a satisfactory solution to these. There should not be any double standards.

If we have municipal councillors like them, the crooks will be out of business!