There seemed to be a lot of unhappiness reported in the Press and some blogs regarding the appointment of new municipal councillors for both Penang Island and Penang Mainland.
Unhappiness in the Press because it seemed that the Pakatan government was not making good its promise to allocate 10 seats to the non-governmental organisations. Only seven such appointments were made to fill four seats on the island and three on the mainland.
Unhappiness in some blogs mainly because of the same reasons but I greatly suspected it could be more of personal motives in their outbursts. I hope it was not because these NGOs were themselves eyeing the appointments and had failed to be represented in the councils.
The talk was that five of the seven independent appointments were given to the business community and their representatives would surely look after their own interests first before others.
Yes, it would be ideal if the state government had included people who represented the hawkers or trade unions or house buyers or residents associations or consumers etc but seriously, don't you think that these people will not also look after their self-interests first?? And will they be effective also? The civil society groups seem to believe that they are.
Besides, why shouldn't we be having the representatives from the various Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers as councillors? The business community provides the heartbeat for Penang and it is only right, in these pressing times, that they have a more direct say on how the direction that Penang should follow.
So I say this to the civil society groups .... please don't condemn the new appointees even before they get down to business (pardon the pun). I think it is really unfair to them. Let them prove themselves in this one year. After that, you can talk and pass judgment on them. But not before.
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