Yeoh: Appointing MPs to DBKL best shot at representation pending third vote

PETALING JAYA, July 13 — The voice of Kuala Lumpur residents will be heard with the appointment of their elected MPs into the City Hall (DBKL), Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh said today.

Yeoh said the move would be the best solution to the “taxation without representation” problem, while waiting for local elections to be implemented in the next few years.

“Pending local government election, there must be elected voices in the council. So MPs like Fahmi Fadzil, Lim Lip Eng they need to have a say.

“For those of them who are non-executives, there must be that element,” she told Malay Mail in an interview today, referring to those who were not elected ministers or deputy ministers.

Yeoh is the deputy minister of women, family and community development. Fahmi is the Lembah Pantai MP, while Lim is the Kepong MP.

All 10 KL MPs, including the three of them, are from Pakatan Harapan. Titiwangsa MP Rina Harun and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok have been appointed to the Cabinet.

Yeoh’s remark came just before Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad was reported as saying that KL MPs will be appointed into the DBKL advisory board.

This comes after seven Barisan Nasional political appointees quit their posts in the board today, following MIC’s S. Rajah who had quit prior to the general election.

Those who stepped down were Umno’s Ahmad Faisal Abdul Karim, Rizalman Mokhtar, Mustapa Kamal Mohd Yusoff and Zainal Abidin Mohd Rafique, MCA’s Ng How Doo, MyPPP’s A. Samalah and Gerakan’s Wilson Lau Hoi Keong.

“That is one way to solve unelected voices making decisions for you. So you have directly, elected representatives in there. It must be closest to what the people want,” Yeoh said.

The former Selangor Speaker pointed out that Selangor had once appointed its assemblymen into local councils, but the practice stopped during the administration of Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who Yeoh said “distrusted politicians”.

Despite that, Yeoh, who is from DAP, said she will leave it to Khalid to decide on the mechanism of appointing the MPs into the board.

She also said this would differ from the practice of the previous administration, where the political appointees were not representatives who were voted for in elections, but rather, branch chiefs of BN’s component parties.

Minister Khalid was previously quoted as saying that local council elections will be introduced to Kuala Lumpur within the next three to five years.