The issue now is not just BN component parties not doing their job. I think PR also have nothing much to show other than engaging in endless rhetoric and criticism of BN. Talk is cheap. Coming up with some work plans and implementing them diligently require serious efforts. So far I have seen nothing of it.

When DAP captured Penang and when GE became CM, there were tears in my eyes. I hugged my wife and said it was time. As time goes by, my deep sense of support is gradually replaced by disappointment. Many have asked me to be patient with PR but I think my patience is running out. I have not seen an iota of substantive change other than talk and more talk about change. Let me just point out one thing that the state governments ought to be doing but so far there is nothing much to show.

The performance of local authorities or rather the lack of it, is one of the important issues at the March 8 General Election. It is at the local authority level where government services are demanded and delivered. Local authorities are an important determinant of quality of life of most Malaysians.

Local authorities are under the jurisdiction of their respective state governments. Therefore, it is the state governments that must buck up from their slumber and see that the local authorities within their states do their jobs. It is pointless to blame the poor performance of local authorities on their employees. We expect the respective state governments to provide the leadership and bring about change as quickly as possible. More than six months have passed since PR took over the five states, some of them highly urbanised and industrialised. We need to see some concrete proposals on how best we can reorganise and re-strategise the local authorities for better performance. Things can not go on as usual. We can not expect the same group of people at the local authorities to bring about change. We expect new strategies, new people and new enforcement, control and monitoring mechanisms to be put in place to effect the change.

Some local authorities are bigger than state governments and yet they are being managed rudimentarily by a few unelected officials opaquely accountable to someone at the state. We need to know how the large potential of revenue is generated and spent at each local authority. We need to know how the towns and cities are planned, managed and improved.

If I may, let me describe how a typical town or city in Malaysia looks like:

1. we have haphazard traffic system creating bottle necks and congestion everywhere;
2. we have road signs that confuse rather than provide directions;
3. we have people double-park or illegally park their vehicles everywhere;
4. we have very poor enforcement of building bylaws – one just have to look at the number of building extensions and modifications which are an eyesore to most;
5. with very few exceptions, most towns and cities are filthy, with garbage and foul stench found almost everywhere;
6. walk near any eatery, and see the level of hygiene and cleanliness around the place – chances are you will find filthy floor, tables mopped by a piece of cloth dirtier than the table, and clogged drains around it releasing foul smell while we eat;
7. some places that need the street light most are in complete darkness while in some places they are lighted up like Disneyland;
8. we find rivers and streams passing through towns that are like open sewerage;
9. we have hawkers and food stores everywhere breeding rats, cockroaches and all kinds of pests

I don’t think the list above is exhaustive. But I guess it has provided us sufficient insight as to the amount of work needed to be done by local authorities. I urge the state governments not to indulge in populist tendency by succumbing to unreasonable demands and anti-civic behaviour. It is the job of the government to induce as well as to compel changes for the betterment of society.

You know what? I am seeing PR states gradually behaving like BN – appeasing parochial interests at the expense of societal interests. Remember, Lee Kuan Yew acted tough with Singaporeans, not engaging in populist and appeasing tendency. You are given five years, you have to start doing from now before you stand a chance to be given another five years.