NGO flunks PAS’s Nizar Jamaluddin, PKR’s Dr Wan Azizah in report card on state reps

PETALING JAYA, Oct 14 — PAS leader Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin and PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail have both failed to make the grade in a watchdog group’s second assessment report of 115 elected state representatives in Perak and Selangor this year.

Despite being a prolific social media user, Mohammad Nizar earned red marks for the second time in a row from Kuasa, which observed the Changkat Jering assemblymen failed to respond to messages sent to his four Facebook accounts and to his Twitter platform.

The former Perak mentri besar also did not respond to email communication sent to his official email account, as well as those directed to his secretary and service centre staff, according to Kuasa’s survey on the responsiveness of state lawmakers to the complaints of their constituents.

Kuasa is a non-governmental organisation that focuses on engagement processes, particularly on the effective use of social media by elected representatives in interacting with the grassroots.

The watchdog similarly gave low scores to Dr Wan Azizah whose receptiveness was tabulated for the first time after being elected Kajang assemblyman in April.

According to Kuasa, Dr Wan Azizah — who had been in the running to be Selangor mentri besar — had failed to respond to messages sent to her by email, Facebook and Twitter.

Kuasa chief operating officer Praba Ganesan noted that Taman Medan PKR assemblyman Haniza Talha and Pasir Pinji DAP assemblyman Howard Lee were among those who “performed admirably” and classed as “super performers”.

Praba pointed out that concerns most likely to receive quick responses, on average between 24 and 36 hours of being made, were requests to obtain food stall licences, dialysis assistance, and loan forms for university entrants.

Other Pakatan Rakyat (PR) assemblymen in Perak who performed similarly to Nizar are Husin Din (PAS ― Selinsing), Teh Kok Lim (DAP ― Pokok Assam), A. Sivasubramaniam (DAP ― Buntong), Chen Fook Chye (DAP ― Keranji), S. Kesavan (PKR ― Hutan Melintang), Ahmad Yunus Jamhari (PKR ― Kuala Kurau).

Barisan Nasional (BN) state lawmakers in Perak were also not spared, with at least 30 per cent failing to respond across the three officially publicised mediums of communication.

Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir was among the nine out of 31 BN state representatives, all from Umno, who scored poorly in March and again in October.

According to Kuasa, Zambry ― who is the Pangkor assemblyman ― did not reply to multiple contact attempts through emails, Facebook and Twitter.

Others were Ahmad Hasbullah Alias (Kubu Gajah), Khusairi Abdul Talib (Slim), Mohd Zolkafly Harun (Lintang), Salbiah Mohamed (Temenggor), Samsudin Abu Hassan (Air Kuning), (Mohamad Daud Mohd Yusoff (Selama), Rashidi Ibrahim (Pasir Panjang) and Mohamad Kamil Shafie (Manong).

Meanwhile in Selangor, apart from Dr Wan Azizah, six assemblymen ― three each from BN and PR ― were marked as unresponsive.

They were Kamarol Zaki (Umno ― Sungai Air Tawar), Datuk Shamsudin Lias (Umno ― Sungai Burong), Sulaiman Abdul Razak (Umono ― Permatang), Khasim Abdul Aziz (PAS ― Lembah Jaya), Abdul Rani Osman (PAS ― Meru) and Daroyah Alwi (PKR ― Sementa).

Praba pointed out, however, that the results have significantly improved from their pilot project in March, especially in the responsiveness of assemblymen from Perak ― who had previously scored 27 per cent ― which has risen to 64 per cent.

“The higher scores were attributed to high response from executive councillors where seven out of 10 had replied. In Selangor, nine out of 11 executive councillors including new mentri besar Azmin Ali responded,” he said at a press conference today.

But noting the lack of response from the high-profile respondents like Nizar, Dr Wan Azizah and Zambry, Kuasa proposed they better maintain their social media accounts and post working email addresses to facilitate communication.

The NGO recommended that assemblymen, who are executive councillors and hold party positions, be given teams to manage their official communications tools.

“Both the Perak and Selangor government should also consider assisting all the assemblymen with appropriate resources to handle their communications needs,” added Praba.

Kuasa also encouraged the use of Twitter, as both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim are active users on the microblogging website.

“More importantly, a large under 30-year-old electorate would form a negative perception of lawmakers, who willingly ignore major social media tools,” said Praba.