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If Ka Ting is serious on talking about reform in the administration of the local councils, then he should fully support the “Restore Local Governments Election Campaign” initiated by the DAP and play his role to convince the Cabinet to give back the “third vote” to the people   Press Statement by Loke Siew Fook (Petaling Jaya,  Wednesday): The latest “wake-up call” by the Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting to all local councils in the country to buck up their services and to act swiftly on public complaints is another example of plain rhetoric by government minister which completely lack of substance and political will to reform the government administration.  Ka Ting was quoted as giving this reminder when speaking at the opening of the municipality consultative committee meeting in Seremban last Monday (The Star, 29 March). Ka Ting was saying that the Cabinet will intervene to solve the problem if local authorities failed to act on public complaints. Is Ka Ting seriously suggesting that the Malaysian Cabinet has nothing urgent to do at the national level but has plenty of spare time to spend to handle public complaints at the municipality level?   While I welcome the concerns and acknowledgement of the problems at the local councils level by Ka Ting, however the solution is not to ask the Cabinet to intervene to solve these complaints but to address the root causes of the problem that is the appointed system of local councils in the country has resulted in inefficiency, lack of accountability and serious bureaucracy in the administration of local government.   By saying that “it may be a burst pipe left unattended or illegal land clearing going undetected for a long time, all these reflect poor administration”, Ka Ting is not living in reality or he was not adequately briefed by his officials on the workings of the local councils.  I suggest Ka Ting to make a prompt call to any local council to make a complaint on burst pipe and he will be pushed around by the receptionist saying that burst pipe is not under the jurisdiction of the council but come under the work of Water Department.  Ka Ting further said that something must be very wrong if a burst pipe was left unattended for days. It is definitely very wrong in the system and these are not new problems and in many cases those problems left unattended not for days but for months!   As the Minister in-charge of local governments, Ka Ting must be fully aware that his portfolio has no real power and authority on the running of the local councils as the council members and its chairmen are all appointed by the state governments and thus they are answerable and indebted to the respective Mentri Besar and Chief Ministers rather than the Minister.   If Ka Ting is serious on talking about reform in the administration of the local councils, then he should fully support the “Restore Local Governments Election Campaign” initiated by the DAP and play his role to convince the Cabinet to give back the “third vote” to the people. (30/3/2005) * Loke Siew Fook, Negeri Sembilan State Assemblyman for Lobak and DAP Restore Local Government Elections Campaign Committee Member