Remembering Goh Ban Lee: Malaysia's champion for elected local councils

Dr Goh Ban Lee, who passed away at the age of 85, dedicated much of his life to advancing the cause of local government and urban planning in Malaysia. His death on 4 December marks the loss of one of the country’s few consistent voices for democratic local governance.

Ban Lee served at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for perhaps three decades, attached to the Centre of Policy Studies. There, he worked alongside distinguished scholars including Professor KJ Ratnam, Professor David Gibbons, Dr Lim Teck Ghee, Shukor Kassim and others.

Being in USM as well back then, I had many opportunities to interact with Ban Lee and engaged in many useful exchanges with him over the years.

Originally trained as a teacher, Ban Lee had enrolled for a BA degree at USM. He subsequently finished his PhD in urban and regional planning at UCLA, about the time I joined USM in 1979.

He was among the very few researchers in Malaysia who focused on the study of local government. Presumably, this was because many had lost interest in urban studies after the passing of the Local Government Act 1976, which replaced elected local councils with appointed ones throughout the country.

This act came despite a 1968 report by a royal commission of inquiry into the workings of local authorities, headed by Senator Athi Nahappan. The commission actually recommended that local government elections be restored after its suspension in 1965. It concluded that “democracy with efficiency is always more desirable and better than efficiency without democracy”. Alas, we have continued with appointed local governments throughout the country ever since.

But Ban Lee was among the very few researchers in Malaysia who maintained focus on local government studies during this long democratic drought. His 229-page book in 1991, Urban Planning in Malaysia: History, Assumptions and Issues, remains a seminal work in the field.

Ban Lee’s expertise proved invaluable not just in academic circles but in practical governance as well. He had a comprehensive understanding of the workings of the council, having served as a municipal councillor, representing the MCA-Barisan Nasional.

This experience gave him a comprehensive understanding of the council’s inner workings – knowledge he would later share generously with others in civil society. I consulted him to learn more about the then Penang Island Municipal Council (now a city council) after I was appointed a councillor by the Pakatan Rakyat government, when it first took over the Penang state government, following its victory in the 2008 general election. His institutional memory and practical insights were indispensable during that period of transition.

Ban Lee also wrote a weekly column for The Sun about local government affairs, which I found useful. These columns were essential reading for anyone interested in urban governance. He later served as a senior research fellow at Penang Institute, the state government’s think tank.

What distinguished his writing was his intellectual honesty. Although he was appointed by his party, the MCA, he rose above that affiliation and advocated for greater autonomy for local government in his columns.

He championed the restoration of local council elections, arguing that “the principle is ‘No taxation without representation'” and that “rate payers should be able to choose the people they pay tax to”. He believed in the consolidation of a third tier of governance that could be free of control by both the federal and state governments – a dream many of us in civil society aspire to.

His critical stance on corruption, wastage and inefficiencies in local government administration was unwavering. Ban Lee always maintained that good plans were prepared by good planners. Ordinances and bye-laws were also passed. But enforcement was terribly lax. And there was much interference by politicians, resulting in half-baked reforms – observations that remain painfully relevant today.

Rest in peace, Ban Lee. Thank you for sharing your knowledge about urban affairs, especially regarding Penang, with those of us in civil society. Your voice for local democracy and good governance will be sorely missed.