DEMOCRATIZING LOCAL GOVERNMENT: WHAT MALAYSIA CAN LEARN FROM MEXICO AND INDIA

The Pakatan Harapan 2018 election manifesto, had as one of its commitments, to strengthen the authority of local government and to make local councils more accountable. Many took this to mean that local government elections would resume, after an absence of more than 60 years. While Pakatan Harapan’s tenure as Malaysia’s ruling government was short-lived, their rise to power did put local government back in the spotlight, as well as raise the prospect of the resumption of local government elections in the country. There are a number of reasons why a more democratic and participatory approach to local government is to be hoped for in Malaysia. These include the view that it discourages public malfeasance and produces local officials that are more responsive to the needs of the citizens they serve. There are however challenges that come with introducing a more democratic form of local government, especially for countries which are attempting to transition from authoritarianism to a democracy at the national level and which have a diverse multi-ethnic population of differing socio-economic backgrounds. In order to better understand what these challenges are and how they can be overcome, I examine two case studies, that of Mexico and India, which have some similarities to Malaysia in terms of regime-type and demographics. I consider the evolving approach taken by these two countries towards local government, in terms of their structure and practices, with a view to gleaning potential lessons for Malaysia. This paper begins with a brief historical overview of the system of local government in Malaysia up to the present day. This is then followed by a discussion of Mexico and India’s own uneven experience with democratizing their local governments. What these case studies reveal is the manner in which countries with an authoritarian past often undergo a transitional period, in which even as structures of local governance become more democratic, local officials and citizens remain trapped in old authoritarian modes of behavior. And that unless interventionist steps are taken, democratizing local government structures alone, does not necessarily lead to greater citizen empowerment, especially for those from the more marginalized sections of society.

Reimagining the Indian Political Set-Up:A Political Branding Outlook

Politics is one area which the layman might not associate with the field of branding but with time this aspect of modern-day democracy has become synonymous with branding. Jevons (2005) is of the view that branding is flexible enough to include the realms of politics. The consumer-citizen concept is a step in this very direction. Today’s voter behaves more on the lines of a consumer who needs to convinced to buy into (read vote) the brand promises (read election manifesto and promises made during campaigning) put up by various political brands. Just like there are two aspects of a brand, successful and failed, political branding is no exception to the same. Modern times have seen the rise of many a political brands some of whom have had an ardent following while others have been shunned by the electorate for their disconnect with the voter. The western democracies such as US and UK are replete with political brands which have proven their mettle (or faded into oblivion) during various elections. However, the same has came to fore only in the past few years in India thanks to the information revolution. No other election witnessed more significantly the concept of political branding as did the last two general elections of 2014 and 2019. The concept of political branding and political participation have shown quite strong relationship between them in those countries where it is applicable. Through this paper, the author has attempted to establish a relationship between political branding and political participation along with what characterizes the successful making of a political brand in a conceptual way.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Manipulative Tactics in His Manifesto Launch Speech

The present article is directed to explore, find out and interpret the manipulative intentions of Jeremy Corbyn in his pre-election manifesto launch speech in 2019. The aim of the present investigation lies in a careful and extensive study of manipulative techniques and tactics in the said article to be able to understand and interpret Mr. Corbyn’s hidden and covert intentions correctly and precisely. We used different linguistic methods for the analyses of the research, such as discourse analyses, linguo-stylistic, syntactic, and pragmatic methods of analysis. All these helped us to thoroughly analyse the manipulative tactics of Jeremy Corbyn in his manifesto.

Post-legislative Scrutiny (PLS) in the Process of Democratic Transition in Malaysia

Malaysia’s 14th general election in 2018 saw the fall of the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime after ruling the country for more than six decades. Prior to the election, Malaysia faced challenges ranging from the absence of state legitimacy, fragile institutions to corruption scandals, leaving little room to have robust discourse on legislative reforms. Promise 16 of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) election manifesto prior to the election, pledges to restore the dignity of Parliament to institutionalize the select committee system in Parliament and the Senate to enable them to function effectively. Whilst there is limited post-legislative scrutiny (PLS) in Malaysia for now, the various reforms in the phase of democratic transition to the administration of PH is a positive sign of the possibility for Malaysia to move into better law-making procedures. This paper examines the work that is currently being undertaken in the Parliament of Malaysia to assess whether the current parliamentary reforms can pave the way for the PLS mechanism to be put in place.

Dalits In Post-2014 India

The BJP’s 2014 election manifesto outlined the socio-economic elevation of Dalits as a priority by focusing on education and entrepreneurship, strengthening the prevention of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and bridging the human development divide between Scheduled Castes and others. This chapter empirically illustrates the low allocation of funds for many sectors including education, welfare schemes like Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes (SCP) and the high number of incidents of violence against Dalits in BJP ruled states. As a result, Dalits are largely discontent and insecure, which reflects in voluntary uprisings and protests against policies of the incumbent government. At the political level, Dalit parties are joining hands with secular forces like the Bahujan Samaj Party’s understanding with Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.

Indian Languages in Election Manifesto of Seventeenth Lok Sabha Election-2019 in the interest of strengthening democracy

Democracy is a system that respects the feelings of the people. But some experience in the context of India is the opposite. Here in the name of democracy, the system, which removes the system from the language of 'Lok', has continued to dominate. In this vision, words are called out, calling it true and good democracy. Distance from the local language of administration is the root of many problems, so the insistence on keeping distance from the language of justice puts a question mark on justice. The side effect of this is that education is also embracing the language which negates the self-respect of the folk language. The most negative aspect of Indian democracy is to alienate Indian languages ​​from their natural rights. लोकतंत्र लोक की भावनाओं का आदर करने वाली व्यवस्था है। लेकिन भारत के संदर्भ में कुछ अनुभव इसके विपरीत है। यहां लोकतंत्र के नाम पर व्यवस्था को ‘लोक’ की भाषा से दूर करने वाले ‘तंत्र’ लगातार हावी रहे हैं। इस दृष्टि में उसे सच्चा और अच्छा लोकतंत्र कहते हुए शब्द ठिठकते है। प्रशासन की लोक भाषा से दूरी अनेक समस्याओं का मूल है तो न्याय की लोक की भाषा से दूरी बनाये रखने की जिद्द न्याय पर प्रश्नचिन्ह लगाती है। इसी का दुष्प्रभाव है कि शिक्षा भी उस भाषा से आलिंगन कर रही है जो लोक भाषा के स्वाभिमान को नकारती है। भारतीय भाषाओं को उनके स्वाभाविक अधिकारों से विमुख करना भारतीय लोकतंत्र का सर्वाधिक नकारात्मक पक्ष है।