Of concerts, ceramahs and animal rights, Part 2 (on a more serious note)

Part 1: http://animalcare.my/2013/04/27/of-concerts-ceramahs-and-animal-rights-part-1-in-a-lighter-vein/

It’s ceramah fever, folks! And yes, I have been attending the ceramahs and dialogues because as a citizen, I want to know what is going on and what the politicians plan to do to serve us better, but I have not forgotten to ask for animals rights too. It is never easy to ask for the rights of a minority (not in numbers as stray animals may well outnumber humans in our community) but a minority which cannot vote and has no voice.

Ref: http://animalcare.my/2013/04/24/can-we-be-the-voice-of-the-majority-one-day/

We need to speak up for the animals, and we need a bigger voice. That’s the bottom line.

For the benefit of new readers, we have been asking the powers-that-be to spare our ear-notched animals from capture ever since AnimalCare was registered as a society and that is all we have asked for. The answer has so far been “No, but if you can stop the people from complaining, that would be good because we only act upon complaints”. So, on our part, we have been promoting kindness to animals to the community through my public talks, free books and this blog. We have also been providing neutering subsidies to all applicants who qualify as per our policy. The number of neutered animals subsidised/sponsored by us as of today stands at 1367.

We have been doing our part.

But we need you to do yours too.

1. Participate in One-Street CNRM and take care of the animals on your road. As long as you are an honest and responsible applicant, we will provide our subsidy (as per our policy).

2. Speak to your elected representatives and ask for better treatment for the street animals. We need a bigger collective voice. 

Here is the reply from my communication with a representative from my constituency, Mr Ramachandran (husband of YB Hannah Yeoh), reproduced verbatim, with permission:

Although the area of animal welfare isn’t spelled out explicitly in our manifesto, Hannah and I believe that PR has the necessary people and policies that will lead to an improvement in our lives and by extension, the lives of our animals too. We have an animal activist, N.Surendran running for Parliament in Padang Serai, Kedah and who is also the Vice President of PKR. With regards to street animals, what is required is effective empowerment of the local councils in how it manages street animals. To do that, DAP is committed to reinstating local government elections. With local council elections, your local councillors and even the mayors will be elected by you. They will then be accountable directly to you instead of the current practice of being appointed by the state government. And it is the councillors who decide on policies at the local council level. At the moment, although our councillors are very sympathetic towards the cause of protecting street animals, they do not have the direct mandate from the ratepayers/voters to introduce substantive changes. This is one of the key reasons why we in the PR and especially in the DAP is very adamant in having local council elections. Malaysia used to have it back in the 50s and 60s, but was suspended indefinitely by Parliament. The PR state governments of Penang and Selangor has pursued this matter in the courts. Selangor has kicked off the effort within its jurisdiction of powers by holding elections for village heads and that has been successful.

I hope this sheds some light on how through structural reforms such as this, we get to put in place a system that is more democratic and one which empowers the people so our governments be it the local government, state or federal are better positioned to respond to the needs of the people in the future.