Can Local Government be more accountable?

For many who are living in Klang Valley , it seemed that there lives an entity that can be bigger than the federal or state government . For those who are not familiar with Malaysia's political system , we are governed through a combination of roles clearly divided among the federal government and 16 state governments. It is like a mixture of centralized and decentralised matrix.

Anyway , these 2 instintutions are supposedly 'strong' in which representative are mostly voted through election mechanism. However , over the years there is a trend of a 3rd entity - the municipal council. Municipal councils are under purview of the Federal government yet they are associated closely with the State government . Basically , the best of both worlds. And yet , their power is growing stronger which may come from the ever increasing wealth from tax and services. As the money grew , so are ambitions. Now , some even managed to fund a team of profesionnal players for local football league.

The latest controversy is related to the raping of trees in a supposedly protected forest. Then we have the case of development of Kelana Jaya park / pond in a highly congested area. Of course , before that would be the development of a multimillion Immigration department , the LDP Giant hypermarket. And who can forget the case of one municipal council who thought so highly of themselves that the councillors were each given a RM10,000 batik and the biggest guy have a Cokmar. A cokmar is something a king or prince would use in an official procession. And he used a lot of money to get this cokmar done with all the precious gems etc.

How rude it is to be paying so much money to a municipal council who are presumely doing the best they could with their income by dissing us with mediocre sanitation , planning etc. service? And we tot that it is becoz they don't have enough money to spend but in fact , the money is spend elsewhere. I won't be surprised if their financial state is much worst than they would like to say and ended up needing extra funds. Good planning indeed.

Richard Bolton - the Neo fascict / Con lookalike

I was looking at the photo of this Richard Bolton person yesterday . His name was previously mentioned in many websites as one of the staunch , unilaterelist , war - mongering American Expansionist Idiotlogy person . But i have not seen how he looked like.. till yesterday when he was confirmed as one of the candidate for US's UN representative. Forget about his histories or the crude way of perceiving his own superiority ( or his country's ) .... this guy looked like Adolf Hitler. hahaha . Seriously , he have a parted hairstyle with a moustache that seemed to be in contrast. ( his moustache is pure white in colour - bleech ? haha ) . One of the pics did show a common pose with the much hated Feurer.

Surely , he is not an incarnation ? Right? Right?

Was in conversation with one of the "Editorial Opinion" writters. Since he gave the centre piece opinion on this website , i think this guy should be one of the 'big guys". Anyway , here is an exerpt of my naughtiness


Haha . U mean Fox channel , CNN and all those 'independent' and 'democratic' station news? I have read their versions of the same event.
Or you mean Saudi arabia royalties , Ukraine , Tonga and all the small islands .. Or maybe Tony Blair?
Same to you friend. I am sure you take this personally as my language was very strong. Apologise for that but I can't respect your editorial opinion unless a writer is willing to look at both side of a coin. And it ain't pretty.
Cheers

-----Original Message-----
From: lee@leepbutler.com [mailto:lee@leepbutler.com]
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2005 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: Sometimes What The World Needs Is A Cowboy

Maybe you should do a search of the news on google and you might change your mind about 'how much of the world' resents 'my' cowboy!
> Mr Lee ,
>
> Haha
>
> I think "I' can safely represent the 'world' or at least my country to
> say that at NO-time , we need that cowboy . The bigger part of the
> world resents your cowboy and its follies. It is your own
> preconceived opinion from a US
> perspective that is so flawed with selective , simple , archaic reasoning.

And he never responded.

Saw another article today on CBS news. Wow , this station is Pro-government .. to say the least. It gives an article on why Richard Bolton is the right choice to hammer United Nations into shape . And they have been waiting for US to bring the 'leadership " needed .. aka. .. Feurer . No doubt that UN has its own problem as much as US can't admit its own ( look at the latest report on Human Rights compiled by them ) . But what astonishes me is the said "right' of the US to have the leadership and the impression that nobody else are able to do it. The last someone checked , they are still not paying the millions of debt to United Nations. Perhaps , the best leadership they can give is to pay up their dues first before talking.

Valentine 2005 Rhyme

A need

Somebody needs one ,

Somebody needs two ,

I only need one ,

And its only you.

Somebody needs three,

Somebody needs four ,

I got mine for free ,

So why pay more?

Well , another sweet , ironic poem from me to my loved one. She asked me to repeat them again .. and i actually need to explain the whole construction. Btw , the " somebody needs" actually refers to wives. 4 wives are magical number in certain societies.

Norwich City Vs Chelsea - what is ur view?

Just found out that another church is 'tapping' up one of the youth 'leaders' to serve in this person's church ... Yes , ala Maurinho and Ashley Cole. haha . It does give me a tinge of sadness and to think of another Norwich City vs Chelsea scale of comparison . Sometimes ironic that small churches end up fighting to retain their small resources that God provides. And the rich gets richer. But of course unlike the economics of football , God's 'economy' may not be a common 'sen'se and ringgit that we humans reasons. Perhaps that is the sunshine in this situation.

This youth was very accountable in explaining the invitation to go to the other church , due to the relationship the person + friends have. And i think that is very worthy conduct in this modern times. And i alllowed this person to go as i think trust is an important element in any ministry. But after some chats , do 'feel' that something is just 'not right' but i kept quiet. Just got a confirmation on my gut feeling . that the leader is persistently asking for commitment to help out in that church. And the youth is currently having a dilemma of what to do , yet not sure how to say no. I guess there will be another long chat this weekend .

Certaintly , it brings about the question of how 'forceful' one should be in the ministry. I remember having a chat with Eric and he shared on his dilemma in presenting his sermon - rational based or excitement based. Not fitting exactly in this scenario - but it is a dilemma. I have a dilemma on being forceful in this area, and i believe that at the end .. people will decide based on what God wants them to do. For me to influence them other than encouragement and prodding , I might end up being the "God" that provides them with the illusion of ministry. Yet , this is the 2nd time this week that i am faced with this question.

The first one being a good session i had with a brother when we chanced upon the topic of a common friend who is deciding to serve in a presbyterian church in Klang valley. When this friend asked me , i told him that we would welcome him gladly and need servers in our small church , but asking him to decide after he viewed both churches ; esp as he was staying near to the other more notable church. And on the other side , apparently they are very aggressive in getting him .

I guess my dilemma would be in 2 fold . One , is if i should change my approach and be more forceful in the ministry . In fact , i think that it brings the result and the people in short term and potentially long term. Secondly , can God's purpose of another person be more than what is available in the church or organisation that we are tauting / selling ?

So perhaps it has to do with an understanding of the difference between 'God's ministry' and 'Church / organisation's ministry' . With a clear understanding , maybe we can approach people differently in respecting their calling in service. I remember this sharing by another KL thinker - Seng Ghee on leadership . That leaders " point people to God". Perhaps this is only what is expected to be done.