The First Full Council Meeting

"Psst, can we request not to wear coat, ah?" a Councillor sounded me. The official attire for all Council meetings is formal i.e. coat and tie. Although most of the 22 Councillors present wore dark formal attire, one wore a beige sports jacket and two did not wear a tie. The explanation given is that such meetings are open to the public and we better be well dressed (and well behaved!)

For the second time, I came face-to-face with my colleagues, this time real close. There were seven of us representing the non-governmental organizations, and the rest (including one absent on maternity leave) were political appointees. Among the NGO reps were three consultants and three educationalists. From another angle, there were three retirees, two employees, and two business-owners (although the retirees may also have businesses of their own). The politicos were a mixed lot and of varying educational levels. Anyway, it is not for me to judge anyone's competence in serving the Council effectively.

This first meeting was to officially appoint each of us as Councillors (as if the swearing-in two weeks earlier was only a performance!) so we had to go through the whole swearing-in thing again. The appointment letter, signed acceptance letter (both dates), and signed pledges of secrecy and obeiance were given back to us in a nice folder. Wait a minute... if the pledges are back with us and the Council has no copy, does that mean we can be less secretive and totally disobedient?

The chairman of the Council, the Council President (or YDP: Yang Di Pertua), a government appointee, is actually a part-timer, serving full-time as the Senior Assistant District Officer. As such, he comes to the Council office only if he has meetings to chair etc. The Secretary (or SU: Setiausaha), also a government appointee and officially at the beck and call of the YDP and the Council, is like the CEO, overseeing the day-to-day affairs of the Council. He gave us a long briefing on the status of the Council since the last meeting, held by the former Councillors. A nice picture was painted - the District Council is performing well, one of the top in the State, blah, blah, blah..., and has two distinctions: leadership in electronic local government management (or ePBT) and in recycling, whereby other local councils would come and learn from us. There is a healthy balance in the bank and collections are up to the mark. It is a progressive district with incoming investments and growth is everywhere.

Hmmm... so rosy??