By Raveen Jeyakumar
It is crucial for government politicians to go to the ground and meet the common people more frequently and consistently every month.
This applies to both parliamentarians and state assembly members across the country.
This way, politicians will be able to receive direct feedback and complaints from the people about their daily problems and help to resolve them effectively.
Naturally, this will strengthen ties between the common people and government politicians, thus increasing public support for the government – something that is much needed.
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When people see their politicians consistently taking the time and effort to meet them, it will make the politicians appear more relatable. The people will naturally feel more connected to them.
This tactic of working at the ground level has long been used by certain parties effectively. The result of this grassroots work can be seen in the strong grassroots support for these parties.
Frankly, the practice of going to the ground to meet and receive feedback from the people regularly and consistently is something that politicians should be doing in the first place!
Many politicians and elected representatives rarely meet the people – and when they do, it is only to distribute aid hampers, officiate at events or campaign ahead of elections. This old political practice is completely ineffective and even irresponsible, as it is just a superficial way of serving the people.
Such behaviour is also disrespectful to voters. After all, they were the ones who elected these representatives into their positions of power. The voters did so with the expectation and honest belief that these representatives, once elected, would then take the time and effort to regularly meet them to find out their problems and solve them.
It is about time these politicians hit the ground and meet the ordinary people consistently, every month, to receive their feedback and complaints and resolve their problems.
Raveen Jeyakumar, an Ipoh-based Aliran volunteer, is a writer who is passionate about social and environmental issues. His work can be found at reform-the-system.com
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