Media Statement by Lau Weng San in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 20^th June 2008: 

A mockery for PR if partisan nominees appointed as councilors under NGO quota

It has been negotiated that there will be an average of 6 non-partisan councillors in each local council in Selangor excluding Orang Besar Kaya Besar Daerah (OKBD). In Selangor, there are altogether nine OKBDs in each local councils except for Petaling Jaya City Hall (MBPJ), Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) and Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ).

In Petaling Jaya City Hall, there will be a total of 24 new councilors of which four of them are from PAS, seven from PKR and six from DAP, with the remaining seven councilorship to be appointed from non-partisan nominees, i.e. NGOs and RAs in Petaling Jaya.

The Star Metro has published a list of councilors for MBPJ today and I was requested to comment on it. For a city with various active NGOs in town, political parties should not hijack councillorship reserved for NGOs and RAs in MBPJ.

Sad to say, from the list of unconfirmed names reported in the Star Metro today, I can notice that there are efforts by certain party to insert party members as councilors in MBPJ under NGO quota as there are only six NGO and RA councilors in the list, namely Richard Yeoh (TI), Anthony Thanasayagan (Coordinator of Malaysians Against Discrimination of the Disabled), Dr Melasutra bt Md Dali (Town Planner), Cynthia Manonmani a/p Michael Gabriel (Suaram), Derek Fernandez (prominent lawyer on local governance) and Paneer Sivam (labourer activitist) with no representatives from residents association.

It is my stand that the seven non-partisan nominees should be purely reserved for non-partisan nominees, i.e. NGOs and RAs in Petaling Jaya. Else it will be a mockery for Pakatan Rakyat.

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* Lau Weng San, DAP Selangor Secretary & DAP ADUN for Kampung Tunku