Community Leaders

During a dialogue session with the elected representative and community leaders from the DUN Taman Medan recently, it was discovered that we established different interpretation regarding the identity of the community leaders. Under the previous administration, leaders of local political parties have been acknowledged as the community leaders representing the residents bypassing the leaders of community based organisations. Problems arose when some recommendations for action on local issues were made based on political consideration in which sentiment of the mass was ignored. This has not only created community conflict but also tarnished the image of MBPJ. The problem should be rectified immediately or else nation unity and community works at the neighbourhood area will not be attained. Firstly, well respected and unswerving community leader with full commitment and dedication to serve should be properly recognised. To me, community leaders are undisputed representatives of the respective local neighbourhood area. They are capable to mobilise the mass, proactively safeguard the interest of the local community, knowledgable and skillful on community development and become an intermediate between residents and other stakeholder groups. More importantly, they should be abpolitical and non-aligned to any private interest parties. To achieve that, perhaps some form of local election mechanism at the community level should be in place. The appointment system of the Residents Representative Council (MPP) at most of the local authorities in Selangor should be studied.