While debating the recent flood crisis in today’s special Dewan Rakyat sitting, Azalina said local communities can play a crucial role during catastrophes as part of a community-based disaster management system.

The former law minister said village committees in rural areas usually had to take the lead during a disaster because these communities could not afford to wait for the relevant agencies to come to their aid.

She added that she had always talked about the need to decentralise the administrative powers from the federal and state governments’ hands.

“I don’t want to talk about local council elections now, but that might be the way to help local communities so people can voice out on whether a certain development is accepted or not.

“But this is a sensitive matter, and maybe with the MoU between the government and opposition parties, we can talk about local council elections as a step to prevent any abuse of power in governing residential and rural areas,” she said.

The recent floods in the peninsula which led to the deaths of 59 people so far have been linked by certain quarters to overdevelopment as well as rampant logging activities.

In December, housing and local government minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican said the government would not consider implementing local government elections due to the high cost, estimated at RM2 million for every local council.